Personal projects are one of the most important things you can do with a phone or point and shoot camera. You carry a phone around because it is small and relatively obscure; easily put in a pocket or pocketbook, but it is your link to better photography if you know how to think creatively. You will develop a better eye for composition if you use it regularly.

I often give myself little projects for the day or week when I am out walking my dog or driving around doing errands. Last week, even though I hate to compose with trees because they are so darn chaotic and difficult to make into a composition, the idea was to photograph trees for one week whenever I was out in the woods. Therefore, whenever I was walking the dog, I had my point and shoot or phone with me: looking, getting cranky, pulling ticks off, then looking for compositions again.

Attached are a few images from my week, they are not great shots that will win competitions, but who cares?

They are my practice images, forcing me to try harder to make sense of the forest and maybe learning a little more about graphic elements. You can photograph anything for a day or week..forks with different lighting, light bulbs, doorknobs, light fixtures; I have even stooped to photographing an old toilet discarded near a shed.

Don’t be lazy; make the effort.

Filters (on camera) can often save an image but more than that, filters will improve a shot dramatically.

The next two  ND graduated filters are basically versions of the same idea.  Graduated neutral density filters control the brightness of the sky and bring your exposure under control when the sky is brighter than the foreground beneath it.

The next two images will give you an example of the 3 stop ND filter..the first one was taken without the filter, the second one with a filter..the clouds and sky become more prominent and visible. The exposure is more controlled.

Another filter which can be used creatively is the solid ND filter.  I have a 3 stop, 5 stop and a 10 stop.  I use the 5 stop much more frequently than the 10 stop, although in the middle of a bright day, with fast moving clouds, a 10 stop can create a fascinating image when converted to black and white…the images below were taken in three different ways:  the first one is at 1/300 second with only a polarizer; the second one is a little slower at 1/2 second with a 3 stop solid ND, the last was taken with the 5 stop ND and needed 36 seconds exposure. You can see how the color shifts as you use a neutral density filter..it usually has a little blue shift, even in bright daylight…there are some cheap filters that are known for magenta shifts; avoid those..the shift is hard to remove.  I speak from experience with them. I am aware of the passage of time in each of these images; the last one being later in the afternoon, but they are examples of what long exposure can do to water movement.

And do not get screw on graduated ND filters!  On a wide angle they will vignette and even worse, you cannot control the horizon: it has to be in the middle of an image. You will need to purchase a filter holder for the filters. This is what they look like but require adapters to fit on your specific lens…with a filter holder the filters can be raised or lowered and even twisted sideways. I have flipped them 180 degrees when the ground is brighter than the sky.

That was a quick refresher; now get the filters and practice or do it the lazy way using Photoshop or Lightroom grads.  But I like to see results in camera; it helps me visualize what my final image will look like.   

  Since I am primarily a landscape photographer, the light is critical to my images.  In the wrong light or bad light, images can really fall flat…I speak from experience.

  There is a learning curve to photography, it takes time to develop an eye for good composition and a feel for lighting…it has taken me years of practice (and looking at photographs and paintings by masters of photography and art) to get somewhat proficient. But there are many days when my images fall flat and must be deleted: don’t be afraid to delete the junk! Some people never delete images until they see them on the computer, however, I will delete in camera if the composition fails when I review them on the LCD. You must be cutthroat about your images, because as good as you may be in Photoshop or Lightroom, if your shots are bad, admit it..why waste time editing something that should be deleted. Some people don’t like to shoot at the same places; that’s ridiculous…I keep going back to Beavertail or other areas on the coast because weather is always changing; even my attitude changes day to day..I might be cranky one night, but in a good mood the next: it will have an impact on how I photograph.

   Here are a few examples of what I am discussing.  The first one is taken at Ponagansett Falls in Scituate. Be patient!  This night the sky looked like a dud, but as the sun set some clouds appeared on the horizon and things began to change..These three images were all taken within a half hour of each other.

The next image is a wide angle taken at Castle Hill in Newport. I was moving around on the rocks looking for a good composition about an hour before sunset. Always try to get to your location at least an hour prior to sunset; it gives you time to scout for the best spot and do test shots. The second shot was taken as the sun was setting and the clouds and rocks formed diagonals leading to the lighthouse.

The next image was taken in the Canadian Rockies…the first mountain shot was taken without sun. It was cloudy and foggy but it was worth waiting for the sun to break through the clouds, because it burned off a lot of the cloud cover revealing the mountains in the background.

The last one is the combined use of twilight and slow shutter speed. The first ferris wheel shot was taken when it was not moving just before twilight. The second image was taken during the twilight hour when the wheel was turning.  It is obviously much more interesting. Any rides at a carnival are fascinating when photographed at night when they are in motion.

 I know a lot of photographers will tell you they shoot only at F8, the sweet spot on their lenses..that is nonsense. I shoot at F16, 18, 22…the diffraction is minimal with the newer lenses; I need to shoot at those apertures to allow light to hit the sensor a long time to get the effect I am seeking; F8 doesn’t work for me unless there is wind, then I will use it on the foreground to stop movement..also, I use every filter imaginable on my lenses: soft edge grads, hard edge grads, NDs, polarizers, reverse NDs: whatever it takes to give me what I want…

To me, the most important thing about getting an image with impact is looking at the world with awe. Nothing is jaded to me. Think of everything you see as if it were for the first time.

And it is important to know your camera well; this can come in very handy at night or when your flashlight fails. If you are struggling with your camera settings, how can you be creative? If you have custom functions, learn to use them. I am primarily a landscape photographer and have three custom functions set up for this genre.  If I am under pressure to shoot as the light is changing rapidly, these are my fall back settings:  they can be manipulated if necessary.

A lot of you are saying, “It is boring where I live; there is nothing to shoot.”. This is when you have to be creative and dig deep into your  brain for ideas. The images I have attached were all taken in or near my house. Sometimes you have to work hard to see things, but we’re not going for competition images: we are trying to improve our eye for composition.

This first image is a light bulb in a corner of my cellar; it is nothing spectacular, but I liked the webs on it. The image was flipped vertically for a different viewpoint:

The second image is a clump of leaves on a thistle bush. I was walking my dog and liked the shapes; it was converted to black and white.

The next one is a grove of trees…nothing special about it, so I used a slow shutter speed and moved the camera vertically to get something interesting.

The last one is a simple coil of rope at a boatyard…I liked the color, so I took the coil and moved it into a more pleasing vortex shape.

So there are your examples…get outside (or stay inside) looking at things around you.  Light tents are cheap and fun…put silverware or glasses in them and experiment with lighting.  Buy a small fish tank and throw fruit into it, then invert the image. Try macros of kiwis and other exotic fruit…there is no end to experimenting if you remember to channel your inner child. Edward Weston created some amazing images with peppers.    https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/39.208

And not having time is no excuse; if you want your photography to improve you must work at it.

This is a photograph with a diagram of the Rule of Thirds superimposed. The rule is often overused but if you are a newbie photographer it can help a lot to achieve a better composition. When I began photographing digitally quite a few years ago, it helped me to superimpose the grid on my live view image, so try it and see if it helps with composition.

The two images below demonstrate the use of time (with a 5 stop ND filter) to improve or change an image.  The top one is taken at f18, 24mm and 15 sec.

This image was taken with the same aperture and focal length, but with the 5 stop ND: the time was 150 seconds.

The feeling is totally different when an ND is used on an image..in the second image the clouds show more movement as they streak across the sky and the ocean is a lot softer.  So it is important to remember that time can change the whole look of an image. Also, any people moving will disappear from the image at 150 seconds.

Who says you can’t use bulls eye images, and have to keep things out of the center? If a subject is round, it works well.

and remember that a spiral can really draw the eye into an image:

Curving shapes are also leading lines into an image; look for them everywhere: the curve of a beach or a stream. In this image of Mistaya canyon, the river leads the eye to the mountain in the distance:

Remember that while it is a good idea to keep the horizon out of the center of an image, sometimes with reflections it is best to keep the horizon dead center.

Balance is very important to an image: light and dark must balance and act as counterpoint to each other. Look at Rembrandt’s images, he is the master of chiaroscuro…he placed light where it was important, yet maintained dark to balance the image. This image has light behind a seastack from the sun, but the dark, larger shapes on the left help to balance it.

Try to incorporate some of these ideas in your images, or not if you choose…but work to improve composition every day; be creative and use your imagination.. be your worst critic…I delete hundreds of images if they are not successful..don’t keep everything you shoot…what’s the point?