Mid Air

by Donovan Massey
(Florence Al.)


I took this pic. Tell me what you think and give me a few tips please. I'm new to photography.



There're always those moments, when you've decided to start fooling around with your camera, when you think "I wonder what it would look like if I..."

Sometimes it's sheer boredom - wet day outside, nothing on the TV, I know, photography!

So out comes the camera and you try a few things to see if they work out. Getting a little creative as the photography session goes on you think a little more along the lines of trick photography and wonder what special effects you can produce.

And I'm guessing that's what Donovan has tried here.

Drag your friend in, get them to throw their hair up just as I get ready to fire the photo off. And you know what, it's not a bad idea, it could produce one of your best photos, the sort any photographer would be proud of.

There's only one thing that gets in the way of this photo being something special (well, maybe two), the first is the background.

It's easy to forget about the background when taking photos, but it's actually very important. Just imagine Donovan's photo with an empty background - what a difference!

Or, if you have the opportunity, what about on an empty beach? Or an empty field?

All of a sudden the photo begins to take on a much better look and feel.

Backgrounds often get overlooked, but try to look all around the scene before pressing the shutter.

The second thing...well, it's a bit picky, and needs a bit of practice, but maybe some clear direction from the model could improve this photo too.

Think about this, what if the model was told to close her eyes, tip her head back, and then throw her head forwards - eyes closed the whole time.

It would make the viewer think "here's a person lost in their own world, I wonder what they're thinking..."

It adds some curiosity. And a bit of curiosity often helps to make better photos.

It's not always easy posing models, but if you can spend a bit of time helping to pose your model can make a huge difference.

As I said earlier though, maybe this was just a wet day!

Thanks for the submission Donovan, and I hope there are a couple of photography tips here that you find useful.

Darrell.

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