Simple tips can make a difference
I would love to be good at photography, especially landscapes. Small tips can make a difference.
When I grew up I had an old 35mm Praktica camera that was given to me. I purchased some lenses for it and mostly used it to take pictures of the Somerset cricket matches I went to watch.
In those days you had to think about the pictures you take as you only had a small number (24 or 36) per film and you would have to pay to have them developed and printed. Now, in the world of smartphones, you can take as many pictures as you like and see the results instantly. There is also software that can improve pictures in numerous ways once they have been taken.
I have been thinking about what makes a good photograph. There are all sorts of guides around composition, lighting etc. I had come to my own conclusion that a picture should include something "interesting". This could be the way it is lit, something in the picture that stands out or the way it is composed.
I watched a recent video from Nigel Danson about improving woodland photography.
Near us is Heartwood Forest, "the largest continuous new native forest in England". Sometimes I will go there as part of my morning commute walk to stretch my legs. I have taken photos there and they never quite turned out the way I liked.
In the video one of the key takeaways is that you need to look for distractions such as trees at a different angle to the rest or fallen down. What I had previously seen as things that made the picture interesting were in fact having the opposite effect. Pictures I had taken with the sun creating shadows through the trees just made it much more complex and difficult to process.
Sometimes making things simpler and ordered can work better.
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