Really chuffed that the photos I shot with Nathan, Steve and Robert have struck a chord for want of a better expression...........there were some other very cool, moody shots with awesome skies that I could not show because they give the location away and I promised Nathan I would not do that.
Thanks for the kind comments also, means a hell of a lot.
I am a self-taught photographer and I have been doing it a long time, so I guess I know my way a bit around photography, but apart from good gear and a sound understanding of the "fundamentals" (f-stops, shutter speeds, ISOs, colour spaces, focal lengths, exposure and exposure compensation, focusing, etc., etc. etc.), I reckon the single most important thing is COMPOSITION - how you compose the photo, how you "see" the photo.
The photos on that link are my "interpretation" of the session - I shot them the way I saw them, taking into consideration conditions, available light etc. - but another photographer working the exact same session would no doubt have shot a completely different set of photos, and that's the great thing about it. There is rarely a right or a wrong, but there is a good and there is a bad.
I would be the world's most useless teacher at this, but think about this for a start and I reckon every single person's photography would improve by 100% immediately........
I always watch people taking photos, and I always look at other photographs - professional or good photographers aside, what is the most common way you see a photo being taken ? Think about it...........the guy or girl stands there, frames up, and snaps away. Photo always taken from the same perspective - the eye level (height) of the person taking the photo. Generally boring, boring, boring.
Now try taking the same photo from two positions - lie on the ground or kneel down, and then get up say on a rock. Perspective of the photo is instantly changed, and usually for the better.
Then think about whether you want to fill the frame with the subject matter (man plus fish or lure on a rod for example, usually not much point having acres of "dead" space in the frame doing nothing), or do you want to pull back (zoom out or physically move position) and take a wider shot (landscapes, seascapes, big skies etc.)
Use digital as a chance to fire away and experiment all the time. I do this and I always learn something new every time I go on a photo job.
I am due to be giving a talk on bass fishing photography at the B.A.S.S. AGM in March I believe, really looking forward to it. Hopefully people won't fall asleep !!
