Photography how-to

Something Special in your photography

As you were leafing through a photography annual or a particularly good magazine, have you ever asked yourself “how in the heck did that photographer come up with that”?  That lighting is astonishing!  That composition is fantastic or that expression is just remarkable!  How did they do that?  As a photographer, how can I possibly compete with stuff like that?

I’ll tell you how they do it…  The answer probably is that they simply lucked into it.  It was most likely an accident of some kind.  But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t any better than you are.  Really good photographers seem to have accidents happen all the time.  As a matter of fact, they look for, even count on those “happy accidents”.  They’re always searching for that “little thing” that makes this photo special.  Sure, they probably have some tricks up their sleeves that have worked for them in the past, but they always have their eyes open for that little “something special” that will make this image outstanding. 

If need be, a good photographer will spend that extra time searching and searching for that little something special.  It might be the way the lights working, it might be something they say that makes the model react a certain way, it might even come about from a light malfunctioning.  You just never know where that something special will come from, but more times than not, the professionals will keep their eyes and their minds focused on finding the little accident that shows up when you least expect it.

Those same accidents often happen to “lesser photographers”.  The thing is that they aren’t trained to notice it when it happens and end up ignoring or even “fixing” those amazing accidents.  That’s what makes them “lesser”.

Keep your eyes open and your brain working.  There’s nothing in this world like a “happy accident”.  It’s something special.

Good Luck





P o r t f o l i o: These images are from Michael's portfolio. Click on any one of them to take you to see his on-line food photographer's portfolio.
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