LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello and how the hell are you? If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by.  In this blog we are going to answer the question on what is the hardest part of photography for some people.  The best way to answer this is to tell a little story about how I came to this conclusion.   The story started out in a hospital room coming to the realization that life was too short and I want to follow my passion.  I picked up my cellphone and started taking photos of what my heart was telling me to shoot.  This was the first step on my Joureny to becoming a photographer.  

It was at this point that I spent my free time (which I still do to this day) researching how to take a real photograph.  The pages that I was looking at told me one key thing that I needed and that was you have to be creative with your shots.  They don’t really tell you how to do that as it is not something that you can tell a person they have to learn it.  This sent me down the rabbit hole of trying to understand what they meant by JUST BE CREATIVE.  I mean I was trying to get low, high, and whatever you do don’t shoot at eye level because that is the way that most of us view the world.  

I studied for years trying to think outside the box with how I was taking my images and I think that I was successful in that to a point.  Along the way I started truly learning how to take a photo and how to compose a compelling image.  This is where I took a turn for the worst in this adventure.  You see once you learn what makes a good photo with all the elements to it.  You will find yourself working on getting that type of image all the time and you become obsessed with getting those images. 

The first tip is to get past the technical aspects of taking a photo and start being creative with how you take them.  The trap that we all fall into is finding out the settings for an image.  This is going to slow you down to the point that you will start to not enjoy just being out there shooting the photos.  I mean it got to the point that I was looking at a scene and breaking it down to all the technical aspects.  The joy of just being out there was gone for me.  I thought that in order to be a good photographer you had to look at taking the images from the technical standpoint.  I mean all the photographers online are beating a dead horse telling you to use your settings to get the image just right for the proper exposure.  

The second tip would be to shoot from your gut/heart because you already know what makes a good photo or you would not be trying to learn as much as you can about photography right.  Shooting from your gut/heart is so easy to do if you see something that interests you just take the photo and work on getting the best from as many different perspectives as possible.    This means get high, get low and move around the subject that caught your eye.  Taking photos the whole time so that way you can find the best way to take that image.  The fact is that if you pass up on something that catches your eye you will miss so many photos.  This is what they mean by get creative with taking the photos.  Doing this will allow you to see the subject in different ways.  

The third tip would be to learn to see at different focal lengths.  This alone will allow you to see the subjects that are all around you.  That is why I love my 24-105 because if allows me to try taking different images at different focal lengths.  Let go of the building the comp up to what you see on social media.  I cannot tell you how many images of the same subject that I have taken at so many different focal lengths.  This tip is one of my favorite of all.  I say that because you get to play around and shoot the tiny details of the subject as well as the wide shots.  

The fourth and finial tip would be just allow yourself to have fun.  This tip is something that I struggle with to this day because of the pressure of getting all the technical aspects of taking an image down.  You see if you are worried about how to take the photo all the time you will miss so many different things happening around you.  At the end of the day you got into photography to enjoy yourself but you end up losing that because of all the things that you have to do when getting the photos that you love.  The experience of getting to the location is the best part.  Enjoy the hike to get the photos this will help you get a better story for the image.  Remember what it was like when you were shooting anything and everything around you.  

Remembering to have fun was the hardest lesson that I ever had to learn on my Joureny in photography.  I struggle with this till this day because I get into my own head.  I try to get to my location and take it in before I even take my camera out of the bag.  The fact is you will actually see more images just by looking and taking in the beauty.  Try and connect with the landscape before you try to tell its story.  Learn about the area to the point that you can imagine standing there 100 years ago and seeing the area for the first time.  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy from St Johns AZ y’all.