Last month I was approached by photography blog Glasz Art for an interview on my wildlife photo experiences. I've had the idea for a while of doing an FAQ section for my website and I hope you'll agree that Laura Glasz's article is a much better idea, as there is a lot more detail on how to get into this craft, with lots of photos to illustrate.
Here's a link to Laura's full article, and a couple of tips which I thought I'd share below.
What advice would you like to offer a new photographer just starting out?
Take the time to find what excites and motivates you. There’s so much focus as a beginner on how to take photos (exposure, camera settings, etc) and not enough on why. What is it about that flower or that landscape that has caught your attention and demands to be photographed there and then?
When you look more sensitively at your subject and start to explore its character, your passion for it will emerge in your photos and influence the way you take images. This is another area where so many beginners’ photos fall short for me. They don’t take the time to “sketch” – they want to get the photo right first time. Every photographer has a process, and almost every photo you’ve seen that you admire is a result of that process.
Is the light right? Is the subject giving its best expression and pose? Do you need to change your perspective? All of the photos that you take and that you might think are terrible aren’t garbage, as they’re the necessary steps to get that better photo and better tell your story.
Don’t be upset with so-called “unsuccessful” photos. That only leads to frustration, and if you think of each photo as a “sketch” like I do, it encourages creativity and experimentation and leads to those better photos.
