If you visit a city only to see its famous sights, you are missing out on much of what makes that city what it is. The people who live there may do so against the backdrop of its grand buildings, iconic monuments, parks and so on, but for the most part those things are of secondary importance to their daily lives. If you want to really get to know a city you need also to observe those people.
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We all have photos that didn’t make the final cut when selecting the best from a day’s shooting, but which weren’t so disappointing that we discarded them. Maybe they are significant to us because of the subject matter even if we don’t feel they represent our best efforts. Or maybe we keep them planning to try to work on them in the future because we feel they have potential.
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Clouds can look beautiful, enhancing any photo of the sky. They can inspire us to see animals, palaces and more hidden in their shapes. And they can give us welcome shade on the hottest of days. But clouds also bring storms, rain and snow. They turn a summer picnic into a dash for shelter, and they hide a view you climbed a mountain to see.
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Language differences may make it challenging to communicate with the people we meet when travelling, even if we have made the effort to learn a few words. But music transcends spoken languages, and the enjoyment of music becomes a shared experience irrespective of our different native tongues and cultures. It’s the most universal of languages, speaking to all of us no matter from where we come
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When we look at a photo our eye is naturally drawn along any lines within it. By thinking about how and where you place any lines in your composition, you can influence the way people view the image, pulling us into the picture, towards the subject, leading us on a journey through the scene.
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Our first sight of a potential subject has us reaching for our camera, naturally. And sometimes the first shot we take is great, but often (always?) it could be bettered. We could perhaps find a more interesting angle or move closer to take in the details. I'm illustrating this principle with images taken of the temples and other ancient ruins that surround the town of Siem Reap in Cambodia.
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It is relatively easy to photograph a landscape. It doesn’t move as wildlife does, it doesn’t object as a person may do. But to photograph a landscape and be happy with the result is much more difficult. So often the grandeur of what we see fails to translate itself to the image and we are disappointed that the result doesn’t stir in us, or in others, the feeling we had when we were there. But we keep trying!
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This weekend in Europe the clocks are being turned back. The already dark evenings will be darker as days are starting to shorten and nights lengthen. Finding light where we can becomes ever more precious.
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We enjoyed our first visit to San Francisco back in 1991 so on this California trip included a day there at the start. After some early morning fog we enjoyed a beautifully sunny day, although the clouds descended again briefly in the afternoon, just in time for us to get some atmospheric shots from the viewing area on the north side of the bridge, near Sausalito.
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One thing photography teaches us is that there are opportunities for images in the most unlikely places. Carrying a camera we see things differently, noticing not just the most obvious and beautiful scenes but also the potential in the less obvious.
