- Image via Wikipedia
As a beginner, it can be a bit daunting to decide what kind of photographs you would like to take. You’re just getting used to your camera and probably don’t completely know what you’re doing quite yet but that’s okay.
Luckily, the act of taking the picture itself is very easy and once you get some experience under your belt, you’ll improve technically. But for now, I would recommend taking pictures of whatever it is that intrigues you the most. That’s why you got into photography, right? To take beautiful pictures of whatever it is you’re interested in.
If you wish only to take pictures of the outdoors, then obviously you’ll want to position yourself somewhere outside that where familiar with the territory. If it’s temperate outside, then you can go to a local park and perhaps take some photographs of the scenery, depending on how dramatic the scenery is where you live. No matter where you go, birds will be available to shoot.
Once you choose a medium for your photography you’ll have to go look for subjects to shoot. Like I said before, you should take pictures of whatever you’re most interested in. If you like hiking, then go to your favorite trail and look at the natural sunlight there. Depending on what you’re shooting, whether it’s a tree or landscape, the next step is deciding what angle to shoot from. The lighting will play a big part in this. You’ll want to avoid pointing your camera directly into the sun, as you’ll wash out your subject and produce a low quality negative.
As time passes, you’ll start to develop a better eye for detail and your observation skills will improve too. This will help in your framing abilities and should yield you more interesting photos. More times than not, the best pictures is not the one you can see right away. Have you ever looked at the branches on a tall tree and found a bird sitting on a limb that you didn’t see the first time you looked at it? If you look even closer, you might find a bird’s nest! There are lot of wonderful subjects out there to explore with your camera, you just have to condition yourself to look for them.
I can’t stress enough, that your eyes are your primary tool so you need to hone your tool. Again, angle and light will play a key role. Don’t move to rapidly through an area you wish to photograph. Take time to contemplate and find the interesting little things a person might not see the first time around. This is what will make your photography a cut above the rest and really give you a great sense of satisfaction in knowing you created a beautiful frame. As they say, photography is part luck. You never know what you’re going to find out there and with some good luck, you’ll be at the right place at the right time.
My one last suggestion to you is to keep a camera with you at all times. You never know when you’ll find something new and interesting to capture. Now obviously you probably can’t carry your full size film or digital SLR with you at all times but you can carry a small point and shoot camera quite easily. Although you won’t be able to use the techniques you use with a SLR, the basic skill of framing can still be practiced with the tiny point and shoot camera. Just remember that events often only happen once and you don’t want to kick yourself later if you miss something spectacular.
So be prepared and choose subjects for your photography that are important to you. If you do this, your passion will begin to show in your photographs and you will start gain confidence and that is the key to becoming a good photographer.
