Pre-Visualise

One of the most important things to do in photography is to photograph a lot. Only experience will help you to know how the camera will render this or that scene in these or those conditions. Only by trying new things a lot will you have a mental catalogue of ways of rendering something. Once you start to have this, though, you must use it. Start to look at things around you as the camera will render them. Only then will you reliably start to see the finished picture before you take it.

This was a scene that leapt out at me when I saw it. Without the experience I've gained I would only have gotten a shot like this by luck. In the end this came out almost exactly as I hoped.

Texture

Texture always has appeal in a photograph. Perhaps we enjoy the slight visual tension between the texture we can clearly see and the flatness of the paper or screen. Whatever it is, texture is appealing enough to make a whole photograph with no other elements.

To maximise the visibility of texture, always try to capture the textured surface with the light as close as possible to parallel to the surface. A setting or rising sun may give you this light or even -- as here -- a midday one.

Balance The Elements

This is a good picture because of the way white and red balance in the frame. The sharp focus on the textures and the rich morning light give the eye things to explore in the dominant red portion of the frame. Remember, there may be an interesting picture somewhere within an uninteresting scene.

Another Sunflower, Another Bee

Just because.

It Is Right If It Looks Right

Look at this picture. Nice, huh?

It has low contrast. There is some veiling flare from having the sun just outside the frame. There is chromatic aberration on the edges of the petals. The subject is neither centrally placed nor does it conform to the rule of thirds. On top of all of that the "stars" in the sunflower face do not have sharp focus and there is very little depth of field.

What? You didn't notice any of that? Exactly. Don't be intimidated by the online experts who want to replace feeling with formula. Shoot a lot, learn from your mistakes and slowly learn to trust your gut.

Noticing

We had a very rare rain storm a few weeks ago. The next day the air had a rare clarity to it. As I left work I noticed all of these components of the underwater lighting gear for the Education City "moat" which were out for maintenance. This is just the sort of eye-catching clarity that is often assumed to arise from some photographic technique or other. In fact, it is merely a matter of observation and learning to trust that what you see will come out in the picture.