LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello how the hell are you? If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by.  In this blog we are going to talk about how to find a great Composition (Comp).  This is something that I had to wrap my head around and it took me a long time to truly understand why and what makes a good comp.  You see I walk up to a scene and see the image from just being there for less than five minutes.  They say that is because I have an eye for composition.  That is true for the most part but the fact is I had to learn what to look for in order to get that good comp.  

I realized that it was not because god blessed me with a eye for photography that is just something that people say to make themselves feel better about not learning what it takes for a good image.  My eye is based off instinct and training.  I live by the philosophy of you have to train in order to get good at something and that is due to the history I have in sports.  Nothing is ever given to you especially a photographic eye.  You have to practice to be able to walk up to a place and see the photograph before you take it.  

The learning process is by getting out there to take photos in order to see them.  I have many hours of walking up to a location and see the images and it has helped me out with getting good photos.  The one issue that I faced with that is I was so used to a certain type of location that when I went to a new place I was lost and could not find a comp to save my life.  For example, we moved to AZ where there is a lot of the same trees (aka short as f*ck trees).  I was so lost on my first visit to this location and I could not find a good shot to save my life but as time went on I started to notice the uniqueness to this area. 

Time and practice is something that you need in order to find the killer comps that everyone loves.  The only way to see the images you want it time learning how to put together the comp that is in your head so others see what you see.  I start off by finding my foreground and then I build the comp around that.  This trick for finding a good comp is something I learned throughout the years of putting my camera up and seeing through its lens.  After finding a good foreground I will start to look for a good subject to go with the foreground that I found.  This process is what I use for most of my images.  I will use the foreground as my base because it is the first thing that you will see in my images.  

Now there are also times with a location like the Tetons you have to build your comp around the mountains because they are the obvious subject of the image.  The process there is even easier because you have the subject and then you build your comp around that.  This is so much easier because you already have one third of your image built up for you so getting a killer comp is going to be so easy.  These locations I love because getting an image is so easy it is when you go to a not so popular location that you actually have to rely on your skills of seeing an image in order to walk away with a good image.  These are my favorite locations as it tests my skills of building up a comp.  

Then you have the sky in your photos it can either kill the comp or help it.  If you have blue bird skies you need to have a powerful foreground and subject to really make the image pop.  This is harder than what you would think as you need a ultra wide lens to truly make the most of it so you can get more foreground in your image.  Then you have stormy overcast days where the light is either flat or too wet to give you a good foreground.  On the stormy days I will look to the horizon and use the long lens more to work on the atmosphere of the storm rather than a foreground.  In a sense I use the sky as my subject at that point.  The overcast days I will tend to use those days for getting my foreground for a Milky Way shot because you will not be able to tell that it was taken mid day the shadow casts are not there.  

You see building your comp is dependent on the light and how you want your images to turn out.  There is so many things that will come into play for you getting that killer comp but the one thing that will help the most is practice.  I say that with an open heart because practice as they say makes perfect.  The images you get are what you put into them.  The more you go out and shoot the better you will get with every shot.  Like my wrestling days taught me you can only work on getting points one move at a time and I apply that philosophy to my photography by taking one shot at a time.  If we were to look at my first images you would see so many photos that are just nasty and not worth posting but I did and I posted everyday anything that I shot.  Over time I became a photographer I didn’t just start being able to take a killer image it took time and practice.  So go grab your gear get out there practice and work those comps to walk away with a killer image and remember that not every image is going to be that award winning image.  You are going to have a lot more images that suck and are not worth keeping but the fact that you took the image is how you will really learn what doesn’t work.