Remember when you first started driving? Just about everything you did behind the wheel was a conscious act – steering into a curve, breaking for a red light, backing out of the garage, whatever. Everything required a conscious effort. But now, those things are all automatic and you can safely drive from point A to point B without even once thinking about the physical act of driving. It’s a part of you.
If you learned to play a musical instrument you went through the same process. I played piano and at first had to think about every key I pressed. But as time went by it wasn’t which key needed to be pressed any more but how to interpret the phrase. The fingers automatically went to where they were supposed to go.
Athletes also experience the same thing. For example a tennis player at first needs to concentrate on every part of a backhand swing or a serve. But after a while it it all becomes muscle memory.
The single most important thing that causes this effect to happen is frequent practice, usually daily.
But what does this have to do with photography? Well, this applies on two levels and I’m specifically referring to photography in the field. The first is the operation of our instrument, our camera. At first things such as exposure, focus, depth of field, filtration, etc. are all conscious acts. And this doesn’t touch on all the additional functionality modern digital cameras provide such as highlight tone priority, high ISO noise reduction and on and on.
But the pros that we all admire talk about the camera becoming second nature, an extension of the photographer’s mind and eye. And sure enough, through repeated and frequent practice the operation of the camera becomes second nature. When confronted with a situation one responds by making the appropriate adjustments.
The second area is a bit different and has nothing to do with the seamless manipulation of our technology. It has to do with the creative process. I’m thinking specifically about composition.
When I teach workshops I introduce the participants to about 15 or 20 ‘principles of composition.’ These range from fill the frame, off center, and rule of thirds to golden rule, color, texture, pattern and much more. Now most great photographers will say there are no rules of composition. And one certainly doesn’t want to fall into the practice of mechanically applying the these principles. But they are important to understand so that they become second nature and also so that you know when you’re consciously violating them.
Enter the Canon PowerShot G11, my new toy. You’ve heard about chess players that play lightning rounds where they have a ridiculously short amount of time to make each move, something on the order of 15 seconds. The idea is to sharpen their game.
Well, a similar technique can be applied with the G11 or any point and shoot. The idea is to walk through a picturesque area looking for compositions. When you see one, frame it, make quick adjustments and shoot it. Then then move on. For each image you will make snap decisions about the composition. In other words, you very quickly arrange the elements in the scene into a pleasing pattern and then grab the shot. You don’t refine and refine the composition, you don’t overanalyze it. You just make some quick decisions and go with it. The goal is to work in lots of compositions in a very short period of time.
Digicams are ideal for this exercise because they’re so easy to use. Shooting in AUTO mode is also a great idea because then you aren’t distracted by exposure and focusing considerations. You can focus entirely on composition. (If you come across a composition that you feel has potential you can always switch to another mode and shoot in RAW – if you’re shooing a digicam that supports RAW file formats). Also, you’re mostly shooting hand held and viewing the image in the LCD screen. And because of the LCD, chances are you won’t see the image clearly enough to make any fine adjustments. But that’s fine because you’ll be attending to just the major elements of the image and that’s a good habit to get into.
One thing that is helpful is if your LCD screen is capable of displaying ‘rule of thirds’ lines. Those are lines that divide the LCD screen into 9 sections with two horizontal and two vertical lines placed evenly between the respective edges. You can always line elements up on the lines or their intersections or you can placed them elsewhere. Your decision, while a quick one, is intentional and having the ‘rule of thirds’ lines visible on the LCD just makes the decisions more apparent.
One last thing is to be sure you review your images. You can review them by yourself but better yet, review them with another photographer, preferably one that whose work you admire. This is all about the process of mastering composition and the feedback you receive will greatly accelerate your progress.
So grab your point and shoot and head out to the local park or just around the house. Indoors, outdoors, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you exercise the creative muscle of your mind and the more often you do that the faster you will mature as a photographer.
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