Many of us might remember our first Brownie camera. I was elated as a young girl being able to take my camera on our trip as a family to the mountains. I was mesmerized by the snow caps, the power of the majestic rocks, forests of green firs and the overall spectacular views. When we returned home after the trip and we had the film developed, I discovered that every mountain view started to look the same. I don’t recall any photos of my siblings or parents, any of the activities we participated in, but I certainly had all the photos of, it seemed, every mountain in the Rockies.
When we look at boxes or albums of our photos, we might have many people pictures; some faces we recognize and others are faded memories of our grandparents and relatives or friends sitting sober-faced and staring at the camera in their portrait shots. Some photos are of action and show the prowess and activeness of the participants. Others are of pets or wildlife, while others are of buildings and towers or of places we have been. The wedding photos and birthday parties also show us the fashions of the day and aerial photography is “above this world”.
But the photography that is captured during the fall months are the landscape and nature photography. It’s the brilliant colors, the change in season where Mother nature pulls out all her stops on painting the landscape before our very eyes. The water is a richer blue, the color pallets of yellows, purple, orange, red and browns decorate the trees. A leaf-crunching walk in the forest is evidence of beauty. How do we capture that with not only our naked eye, but with our cameras?
Photographers share amazing tips; however, most of us do not own a tripod, various lenses or high-end cameras and so here are three suggestions that will improve your photography skills and help you take more awe- inspiring photos with a basic i-phone or 35mm camera:
- Use the rule of thirds. By breaking up the image into balanced thirds both vertically and horizontally with imaginary lines, position the photo subject along the lines or at one of the two-line intersections.
- Speaking of lines, draw the attention of the viewer to the subject and create movement in the photo by using trees, paths, shorelines to guide the eye of the viewer.
- Lastly, don’t take all your pictures from the same angle or point of view. Change things up by taking shots from ground level, above looking down or even close ups.
And then when you have taken some pictures, enter your photos in a contest and share them with others so they can see your talent! There are multiple contest sites on the internet. https://www.pixpa.com/blog/photography-contests is one of them and they share 15 contests for 2021-2022. So, get out there and take some pictures before all the leaves blow off the trees!
Lorrie Morales is a published author of the best selling book We Can Do This! Adult Children & Aging Parents: Planning for Success. She writes a weekly column for LCCMedia Foundation.