Leave your cynicism at the door and get ready to have your heart well and truly warmed in the Canon feels oven:
Now that you’re done aggressively sobbing into your hankerchief (probably), it’s time to talk about taking a ‘powerful photo.’ How does a photo change the world? What makes a photo as good as it is possible for a photo to be? One answer could be: ¯_(“~)_/¯. Another: ‘here is this list of things that may seem obvious but are still good to be reminded every once in a while.’ We went for the second option.
ACTUALLY GIVE A SHIT
First and foremost, you should actually care about whatever you’re capturing. This is right up there with ‘have a camera’ in terms of tips. Which moments do you want to save? What person do you want to carry around in your pocket? What issues make you wish you could rearrange the world to fix?
Whether it be the people you love, the places you can’t get enough of or something you think needs to be highlighted – get in its face.
Meanwhile, who says selfies are dumb? If you care about you, treat yo’self to an exact recreation of your likeness.
DON’T BE UNLIKEABLE
This one can also be applied to life in general – just don’t be a bad person. If you’re taking a picture of someone you want that person to trust you and to be comfortable in your presence, and a lot of that will depend on you.
CONFIDENCE
If nailing a hole in one was easy, Tiger Woods would have significantly less Nike Dollar$ in his personal savings account. Much in the same way (kind of), if taking ‘that photo’ was easy ‘those photos’ wouldn’t mean as much. But it’s not and more often than not you need a lot of photos to find the perfect shot amongst all the shit. At times you may need to lie on your stomach, get right up inside things, tell people what to do with their bodies and just generally induce eye-rolls from those around you. If you’re too self-conscious to get down, stick your buttox out and hold.that.squat for multiple shots in a crowded place, well, good day to you, sir/madam.
KNOW WHAT YOU’RE WORKING WITH
We’ve become so accustomed to cameras – try travelling back to 1816 and being all like ‘camera phones, brah’ – but we need to please take several seats and think about the process that involves catching light and creating a chemical reaction in a small camera shaped situation, which will then put IRL things onto paper. It needs to be respected.
So, if you have a camera, know how to use it.
KNOW YOUR LIGHT
Anyone who has ever tried to salvage what looks like a bloody fantastic photo, if only it was lit better, in some kind of photo editing application, will know the pain of just not being able to fix it. Much better to be a bit mindful of your surroundings and where whatever you’re trying to take a photo of is, in relation to the light source.
Also, if employed well, light can makes things look pretty and kewt ^____^
TAKE ALL THE PHOTOS
As with any skill that you think you’re okay at and just know that you’d definitely be the president of, if only you put the hours in, but ‘oh well’ – Photography needs to be practiced. Doing something over and over again will more than likely make you good at it, unless you’re being willfully untalented.
You can’t take The Photo if you’re not taking photos. It’s a numbers game and the higher percentage of instances you have your camera with the higher your chance of getting a cool photo. Having said all that – don’t post ALL the photos. Tbh, don’t even post most of the images.
Be selective about the ones you keep.
TELL A STORY
Now that you know how to take the perfect photograph (probably), you may want to think about entering ‘SHINE’. Basically, if there’s something you care about point a camera at it, enter HERE and potentially WIN.
All photos supplied via Pedestrian Photography Awards
