JD Photography

I’ve been a photographer for a little over five years. When I’m out shooting I don’t think about some of the basic fundamentals, camera setting, or finding my subject. Mrs too the time I’m given my subject and I know I need an establishing shot, action, portrait, and some medium and close-ups mixed in.

To be honest with you it has been come repetitive and cookie cutter. Only after I get what I =‘m supposed to get do I even experiment with angles and extreme close-ups of even some cool depth of field.

My point is, I’ve gotten complacent. I’ve let lazy viewers allow me to be a lazy photographer. I’ve allowed to the fast paced nature of my work to stall my natural creativity to producer better images.

I went out recently with a shot list, which I haven’t done in years. The shot list covers the basics of photography:

• Composition
• Balance
• Angles
• Natural Frames
• Leading Lines
• Backgrounds
• Basic Shots
• Perspective
• Shallow Depth of Field

I know all these and I can see them, but to have to be conscience of these while shooting slowed me down to actually think about what I was shooting and why. It’s a different rhythm shooting from a list-in-hand rather than from my minds visualization.

I like going back to basics and returning to the fundamentals. Just like with a sport or other art fundamentals are there to not be set-in-stone doctrine, but to help navigate us in our artistic journey.

I believe part of the basics need to be centered around our equipment. As a professional I know where my knobs, buttons, wheels, and switches are located and can change my ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed.

Now you know what those basics are now you need to find where those controls are located on your own equipment. Like a musician with their instrument or a soldier with their weapon, you must know your camera inside and out.

That leads me to lenses.

With those basics covered lets look at capturing good photographs. There are a lot of image compositions to learn to help take captivating and interesting photos. Depending on your sources there can be eight and up to 28.

My submission for the composition scavenger hunt looks like this.

What I will do with these shots is begin lining out a video montage in the same area, Old Wethersfield. The rich history is too wonderful to pass up.

Stay turned for the video montage next week. Be ready for a great history lesson.