For my work, I travel a lot and I’ve visited many interesting countries and places. Can you guess what is the best way to show people what you’ve seen? Yep! A photo. So, on my travels I did take lots of photos but mostly with a small digital camera or with my phone. II always thought that was good enough, but last year I found out that there’s more to photography than just taking a picture. Actually I found out two things:
1. How it made me feel at ease and forget all the business around me, just enjoying the moment (the here and now)
2. How to show people the way you experienced something
My husband gave me a nice camera for Christmas and I started fiddling around with it…. Mostly with the “auto” or “prepared” settings. It was nice but I wanted more. I decided to come to lodge in South Africa to take part in the Greater Kruger Area Wildlife Photography and Conservation project, which involved a workshop, heading out on safari, and learning how to photograph – nice combo I thought. Since then, I’ve learned that it’s not just about clicking around …
Aperture, shutter speed, rule of thirds, frame in frame, balance, need I go on? There was so much to learn and explore. What an experience and overload of information in the first week… Hardly knowing how to work my camera, me and my fellow photographers had to go on a mission to look around with a different point of view and try to tell a story.
With a great teacher, Tim Feherty, who explained how to use the camera efficiently, the do’s and don’ts and how look with a different perspective, we took photographs which were critiqued afterwards by our fellow students and Mr. Feherty himself. What I found out is that what we see with our own eyes is not easy to capture in a picture.
The pictures taken look nice on your little display on the back of your camera, but unfortunately when you look on your computer it can be a disappointment. Not in focus, half of what you wanted is in the picture, over or underexposed, a little thing in front of it, etc., etc. It’s not at all how you saw it in the moment.
After the photo critiques, you go out again and take the info that has been given (where to stand – how to capture the subject – what do you want to tell with your pictures), and put it to the test. At least 3 times a week we were given a new task (activity) where we had to practice our skills. I certainly started to see everything around me in a different way, and even started to appreciate the little (wildlife) things around me. I never thought I would spend 15 minutes lying on my belly on “hot” dirt to take a picture of a butterfly or any other insect, but I did!
And not only that, but colors, trees, clouds, people, and certainly the beautiful animals.
As the weeks pass by you start to see the improvement in your own pictures and your fellow photographers. The secret is that you have to take a lot of pictures to develop a style for them.
I can say that, thanks to the beautiful environment, Lightroom, but most of all a great teacher, I’ll go back home as a better photographer with a whole lot of meaningful photos filed on my computer. I will certainly keep on improving and developing what I have learned here, because there’s still so much to explore.
