While tooling around in my archives looking for portraits for another project, I came across some images taken with my first DSLR on my first photowalk with a group of photographers. The location, the Salton Sea in California.
Approaching the Scene
What do you do when you approach a scene? Do you try and soak in the entire scene, breaking down different compositions, or are the type to start triggering the shutter button as a method to drill into your subject? I tend to fall into the latter category.
When I find a scene and or subject, I like to work wider angles first. My first shot is rarely something to write home about, it is more of a ‘shake the nerves out’ exercise for me.
The lower and closer I got to this thing, the more it reminded me of a spark plug. I had a very short window of time before the sun disappeared below the horizon.
The Final Shot
So here it is, the final shot. ‘The Spark Plug’ at the Salton Sea.
So, What's the Tip?
Simply do not settle for the first shot you take, use different angles, or as in the case above, start wide, closing in on your subject, and it’s detail until you pull what you want from the scene.
I went on to take several more shots of this subject, but nothing quite felt as good as getting the shot above. I thought I was hot stuff. Looking back at it now, I think, “Yeah, okay, that’s a cool picture…I think I’ll blog about it…”