Here are some of my favorite photos and how their elements worked in my favor.
It's my niece's birthday and we were invited by my in-laws. I had classes in the morning so I caught up in the afternoon. I'm glad I did! It's a very interesting place for close-up shots. I saved the wide-angle one for the evening when the place was no longer crowded.
This is, by far, my favorite shot from that day.
It came by accident when a kid dived just beside them when I took the shot, allowing me to capture balls of water in mid-air. The ones closer to the camera were blurry and the ones closer to the subject were clear, adding depth to the image. The autofocus had already locked on when It happened, preserving the clarity of the subject.
Use Objects as Frames
There are many ways to take advantage of natural and man-made frames. This one's a view from inside a cottage.
Lyka, the birthday celebrant took it. It would be a difficult shot for me, trying to control the high-contrast nature of the EOS1300D. Most shots end up with heavy shadows and washed-out whites but basic editing helped save the shots from the delete button.
It can be challenging to frame the shot if you're part of the subject and you're giving instructions to the one holding the camera. Setting it in continuous shooting mode encourages multiple shots at a time and provides backup pictures in case one gets blurry.
Eyes are naturally drawn to more exciting parts of an image.
I thought about cropping the image from all sides because there's too much going on. - But who cares?
Here's the widest angle I got from my long lens. Unfortunately, the short one wasn't handy. I'd better be more prepared next time.
Prepare for surprises
Fast-action and hardly-repeatable moments. You know what to do. When in doubt, Auto mode! (I didn't take this shot. My wife probably did. I asked her to use only auto since it's the first time she used the camera by herself.)
Pause and look around
There were still slow moments with crabs under the cottages although the whole area was bustling with resort activity. It allowed me to compose the shot and have many angles to choose from. In the end, the only problem was lighting. I decided to use the flash to bring out details in the dark areas. It's one of those shots not too 'drowned'.
1/400 shutter speed provides clarity but is still slow enough to capture motion of relatively faster moving objects like drops of water in a splash.
Once again, continuous shooting mode help me made the cut.
Sometimes, the rule of thirds just doesn't make sense. Haha!
Time for a close-up.
I keep SOOC (Straight-Out-Of-the-Camera) images and view them along with the edited ones not only to compare but to condition my eyes to appreciate natural colors more and avoid oversaturation in editing.
Don't underestimate what your flash can do.
Combined with long exposure, the flash helps reduce blurriness and brighten even far-away objects.
When in doubt, just go for it!
I used flash hoping it would hit fish underwater and it did with satisfactory results. In one of the following shots, it was a bird in the sky and I forgot to lower the flash. Surprisingly, its eyes turned red with the reflection, meaning the flash still reached it even though it was about twenty meters away.
It was an overcast and everything looked pale. I used the 'palma' effect from Google photos to quickly add color to the bamboo.
Tight spots conceal treasures
I had to kneel down on bamboo (which was not comfortable), try to angle the shot and make sure the camera was stable since it was getting dark. The conditions were far from ideal but for some reason, I decided to keep this shot, probably for the effort.
Allot more time to enjoy.
Being an amateur photographer and a part of the event divides one's attention. You want to take great photos and enjoy with family at the same time. It's easier said than done so give yourself enough time to do both.
[Lyka and Nice]
All images are our original work except the location screenshot from Google map below.
Thanks for reading/viewing!
[Credits to the Author of Life]
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Please stay tuned for my favorite photos and the lessons I learned behind the scenes.