Stop Taking Dumb Photos Now

Foreign folks, the world is full of dumb pictures. Can we start taking some good pictures? Larry, the professional photographer, is going to show you how. I've been taking thousands of shots since I was 12 years old. Soon, hopefully, I'll have a photo website up along with everything else. Rule of thirds. First thing is give you. Hopefully in about five minutes, I'll give you about five quick things. Rule of the. The rule of thirds. You know that one? Let's do it quick. Essentially, when you look through the camera, if you divide it into thirds horizontally and vertically, you get some magic points here. Intersection points. These are great points. These are the main points to use or think about when you frame your image. Do not go. Rarely does it work to put it in the bullseye middle. That's usually not the great choice. Much more interest if you put it here. And if you do have one figure of a person, what you do is you stick there and you have their eyes on this level somewhere. But that gives you a quick reference point. The rule of thirds. You don't have to worship the rule of thirds, but it's a guideline like. Like everything else, it'll help you out because you got to move fast when you're taking picture. The other thing is overshoot. This is not film anymore. This is digital. Do not undershoot. When you're out there, you don't see everything in the lens. You don't really know the perfect angle and everything. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Folks. Storage is cheap. This is digital. Give yourself lots of possibilities where you go into a situation. Look for. Where is the picture here? What's happening? Where's the excitement? Where's the energy? When you see something that tracks your eyes, overshoot it, Lock in on it. Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. Don't undershoot where Ms. Precious is circling for the right moment and holding the. No, no, no. Click, click, click, click, click. You don't have to mindlessly flail away at it, but take several shots. You can always discard them. Give yourself lots of possibilities. This is not baseball. Three strikes and you're out. You can have all the shots you want. Look for the eyes. Look for the eyes. Focus on the eyes. That's what you do when you look at people. So if. When you're. You're focusing, get that focus to be on the eyes, especially with the small cameras and all. The other thing is time. Well, here's another one. Let's do this one. Move closer. That's one of the standing rules with professional photographers. For a long time, if you want a better shot? Move closer. And if you, you know, if you got zoom, zoom closer, but fill up the image. This whole thing, give the camera to somebody and they take a picture of you and your friends and your head is the size of a pin. Tell them to get right in front of you. Get close, you know, your waist up. Fill up where you can actually see your face. Move closer. Okay? Fill up the whole space with the thing that you wanted the picture of to begin with. And the other thing is move. Don't overthink it. While you're out there, don't overthink that shot. You don't over judge. You don't endlessly debate. This is not film. Where your Ansel Adams out there with a big, big print that costs a million dollars and you got to develop it and all. Don't over judge the thing. Snap the thing. Shoot the shot. Shoot it. Because you can't get lucky if you don't shoot the shot. A lot of the greatest shots anybody ever gets, even professionals, is they got lucky. The greatest photographer, really the first great legendary photographer, Henry Cartier Bresson said it's all luck. Of course, it wasn't all luck, but a big part of it, and I'll throw an extra one in. Take your camera, and if your iPhone or your, you know, your camera phone is your phone, keep the phone thing open where you can raise it and click. But take your phone with you. Take shots every day. Take it with you. As J. Maisel, as J. Maisel said last year in New York, take your camera with you because it's easier to take pictures that way. So stop taking dumb pictures right now. Rule of thirds, overshoot, don't undershoot. Find the eyes, focus on and move closer. Don't overthink. Click that thing. Keep your camera with you and keep it on. Keep that app open on your phone. If the only one you got is your phone so you can lift it up, you see something, click. All right. If you've got some other quick ideas you want to add, join the party. Give. Make a comment and you're welcome to subscribe if you haven't done that already. And come over and visit us at widel on winning.com sa.