Silhouettes add drama

This is one that I call Oak in Winter.  There are a couple of things about this image that are worthy of some discussion.  First, it is (or was) a color photograph.  When color is minimal or adds nothing in particular, I will often eliminate it entirely in post processing.  Secondly, trees have always fascinated me as a subject and I find them striking when they reveal their skeleton framework after dropping their leaves.  The subject here is just that, a skeleton of a tree.  You should always photograph things that interest you.   It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.  If they categorize you as a bit weird, so be it.

Photograph what you love and learn to continually develop and refine your particular style.  I have mentioned before in this blog that my style is characterized, for the most part, as simple, direct and uncluttered.  When I shoot pictures I give this a lot of thought looking through the viewfinder and will sometimes shoot ten, fifteen or twenty images if time permits and the subject isn't going anywhere.  One of the nice things about digital, is that a memory card can hold lots of photos and if you decide you really don't like them, you can throw them away later.  Avoid being too analytical while you are shooting and trying to make decisions about whether or not to keep an image.  While you are wasting your time looking at that tiny little screen on the back of the camera, other opportunities are passing you by.  You can be fooled into thinking that something is worthless when it may actually have some merit.  Also, I don't care how many thousand dots a manufacturer puts on that LCD screen, it is very difficult to tell if you have critical focus on something that has a two-and-a-half or three inch diagonal dimension.  It's much more sensible to make those decisions on a 24-inch monitor.

Learn to analyze what you see in the viewfinder however.  Move a few feet closer or a few feet farther away and shoot it again.  Get a higher or lower point of view, or change lenses.  Keep shooting until you are satisfied.  Think about what kind of photo might be taken in different weather conditions or at a different time of day.  If you find yourself with unusual ambient light however, be aware that if you come back tomorrow the light will probably not be the same.