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.   

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?

It is important to remember that when shooting sunrise or sunset there are clues that tell you where you are in the progression of light and time. When shooting at sunrise there is a change of hue giving  an indication of the progression of daylight beginning with the predawn colors: blue, lavender, pink, red, orange, yellow…all of these may appear quickly one after the other but when it hits the yellow color, that’s when you are about finished with sunrise.

Sunset is the opposite but after sunset you may be able to continue shooting for quite a while in the twilight hours, even continuing into darkness if you choose to photograph the stars. So here is the progression of sunset: yellow, orange, red, pink, lavender, blue, then black…remember that an hour after sunset there is twilight with beautiful blue skies for photographing cities enabling the buildings to stand out against the sky; whereas with a black sky, the buildings have no edges and disappear.

Also, in the mountains and sometimes along the shore there is a brief moment of alpen glow when the sky suddenly lights up with a pink color after the sun sets.

Here are some examples of the effects of sunlight on an image:

There is a lot of work involved in landscape photography. It may seem easy to get a good shot of sunrise and sunset, but that is deceiving.  The best landscape photographers in the world trek for weeks looking for the best compositions in the best light…Here is a site of a few of the top landscape photographers; let it inspire you to improve and work harder at composition:   https://worldclasslandscapephotographers.com/

You have heard about fisheye lenses and have often seen them used for many weird images: people with huge distorted faces, pets with massive noses, bent horizons, bizarre buildings, etc.  Do you want to use one?

Of course!

The fisheye lens can create absolutely amazing images unlike any other lens. The distortion of the fisheye compared to a rectilinear lens adds a completely new dimension to photography: creativity. And as photographers we want to be creative, don’t we? But as with all good things, there can be bad results, therefore the lens must be used with discretion and only when it adds to an image, not detracts. It is important to remember that the field of view of a fisheye is 180 degrees; the nearest rectilinear lens is the Canon 11-24mm with a 126 degree field of view…the fisheye takes in a lot of real estate and if you’re not careful an image can get very busy. And remember, you can get extremely close to objects; mine will get as close as 12 inches…

I have a Canon 15mm F2.8 fisheye.  It goes everywhere with me;  do I use it a lot?  No.

A fisheye lens is very light and usually small, therefore it is easy to bring along in your bag or in a pocket. You don’t need filters, it would be hard to fit one on the bulbous front lens element, so if I am shooting, the bracketing ability of my camera takes away the element of surprise when I review images. By bracketing, I can combine the sky in one image and the foreground in another if necessary…many times it is not…

I have found that there are certain times a fisheye can do wonders for an image. Night sky images can be incredible. My thought process is simple: if it looks like a fisheye will add something to my composition, I try it…at least by trying the lens, it can be ruled out if the composition fails.

There are even telephoto fisheyes… many manufacturers have fisheye lenses: Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Rokinon.

The lens I have was about $600…they are usually under $1000…some can be found used at Amazon for a lot less.

Here are some examples that may get you motivated to rent or purchase a fisheye: