My friend, jonoslack (Jonathan Slack), said something that got me thinking: "If a photograph is interesting, nobody cares if it's technically good. If a photograph isn't interesting, nobody cares at all." Coincidentally, yesterday was Henri Cartier-Bresson's birthday and I wondered... when people viewed HCB's photographs, how many cared what gears he used, what aperture, and whether they had sharp focus or were they exposed properly? It's not something I care about when an image strikes me. How do I make my photos more "interesting"? So I did a little experiment... while my son was writing his letters and numbers, I tried to take some photos of him with different angles, orientation, and focus points.
The first image is focused on his eyes with a 45 degree tilt. The tilt not only allowed me to incorporate the entire scene into the picture, it also added some extra dynamics. The second image is of a normal landscape orientation, but focused on the pencil. His face is just slightly out of focus, but still clear enough for you to feel his concentration. Also, with his head off to the right and facing out of the image, it creates a somewhat "tense" composition. A more "relaxed" composition will have his face off the left while facing to the right. The third image is back with a tilt and focused on the letters that he was writing.
Which one do you like? Was any of them "interesting"? I, personally, liked #2, not because any of the technical mumbo jumbo, but because it simply connected with me better. And, what's more interesting is that it is probably not a shot I would have normally taken if I wasn't thinking of this experiment. So this is a lesson to me... to take more shots with a different perspective. For what I lack in talent, I will make up with more discipline, shots, and enthusiasm... maybe just a little :)
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