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Nature Photography Tips 11

The next line in our nature photography tips is one I bet we’ve all used. It’s the simple dot, showing a theme in the center of the frame with a relatively plain or purposely unfocused background.  This simple composition expresses a singular purpose, and evokes concentration and clarity of thought.

I wanted to share this particular winter rose with you, not because it’s especially beautiful, but because it was such an amazing flower. It bloomed in late October last year, and was still hanging in there long after New Years. I’ve never seen a winter rose bloom for more than a week, but this tenacious flower just sat there clinging to its branch through several freezes and thaws. Each time it froze the petals got a little more transparent until it looked like it was made of stained glass. Some things don’t have to be especially beautiful to be a worthy candidate for nature photography.

Here’s a classic example of the central dot. The background is intentionally blurred in order to direct your eye to the center of this early peach blossom. I got this photo from my daughter, who doesn’t have a proper camera. She took this with her cell phone. She says her pocket digital camera tends to focus on as much of the frame as possible, and has a large depth of field at any setting, but the cell phone is designed to focus on only one thing in the center of the frame, so works well for this kind of shot.

You don’t have to find a round object to qualify for the central dot. The idea is to focus on a single object. It doesn’t have to be right in the center either. The cricket in our rule of thirds photography tips is a great off center example.

Nature Photography Tips

Do you take a lot of central dot shots when you are shooting nature photography? If not, try a few and notice the clarity and focus they express.

Use a macro lens or setting to get the blurred background effect, or play with the aperture to see if you can achieve a shallow depth of field in order to emphasize the subject.

Experiment with the position of your subject, and also the angle. Straight into a flower may not always be the best angle. The beauty of digital photography is that you can take as many shots as you want, and choose the best one later. I had about 15 photos of the winter rose to choose from.

We have 4 more shapes to cover in this section of our nature photography tips. Keep collecting shots of each composition style!

Nature Photography Tips 10

Our example for today isn’t exactly nature photography, but my daughter took these Christmas lights at the mall yesterday, and it shows the photography tips we want to talk about.

We’ve been discussing lines and shapes in nature photography. In Nature photography tips 9 we discussed upright and inverted triangles. An arrangement of multiple triangles makes a great composition as well. Multiple triangles can be found in nature in valleys, near streams and waterfalls and really just about anywhere if you are looking for them. Interesting rock formations and clouds can form into multiple triangles as well.

This photo of the Christmas lights is a classic example with the lion forming an upright triangle, and the hanging lights an inverted triangle. The two complement each other, and make a much more interesting composition than either object would have by itself.

Multiple triangles in nature photography tend to express a sense of happy, dynamic movement with the impression that there is a lot going on. Richard Scarey’s Busy, Busy World comes to mind.

Nature Photography Tips:

Multiple triangles might be a bit more of a challenge to find, both in your files, and in your daily photo lifestyle. You will be well rewarded when you find them, though, as your photos will gain a dynamic dimension that you may not have discovered before. This Christmas season may be a great time to look for them, as obviously Christmas trees and Santa hats tend to be triangles!