Bring Your Photos To Life

You are probably wondering how you get photographs to sing. A photographer's goal in shooting any photograph is to bring order out of chaos. You do this as a photographer by isolating a particular subject or scene using your technical and artisitc skills to bring order the scene. One of the most effective ways to do this is to shoot with a shallow depth of field and eliminate or blur out the clutter or extraneous background objects which distract from the main subject.

One of the great joys of taking photographs is you get to experience over and over again what it is to "live in the moment.". One of the great joys of animal and nature phography is that animals and nature live continually in the moment. Ask a bird or flower what time it is, and the only response they would give you if they could is "what time is it? Well, it is now of course."

Nature and animals if left to their own devices move at a rate and pace that is very foreign to most human beings. Things are seldom in a rush because they do not 'have' to be somewhere at five o' clock, or have important deadlines to meet on someone else's timetable. From the river making it's way to the ocean, the leaves changing color with the season, or the eagle swooping down to catch a fish in the ocean...it moves, and flows, and ebbs, flies, blows, runs, and swims with amazing accuracy and precise timing.

Getting your photographs to sing is about recognizing nature's song. She plays with harmony and synchronization, which often seem to suggest there is an invisible conductor behind it all, directing and orchestrating the rhythm, knowing just when and where to strike the high notes, to slow it down or speed it up. As a photographer you can become part of this masterpiece with your camera if you can start to see not only with your eyes, but with your ears and your soul.

Your photographs should not be what you want to make them. Rather let yourself step in nature's harmony and become a part of the picture instead of the outsider with a camera. In other words, become aware that you are part of the moment and not just a bystander trying to photograph the moment. If you are photographing a bird, don't just see the bird. Try instead to listen. Get familiar with the bird and it's habits by reading or watching birds.

Your photographs will start to sing when you recognize that every feather, every paw, every leaf and flower is a work of art with every detail intewoven into a design of incredible intracies and flawless beauty.  If you want your photograhs to sing with the color, the harmony,and the rhythm nature is playing, you have to stop, look and listen with not just your eyes, but your whole being.  If you can hear the song beyond what your eyes can see, you will start producing photographs which  'sing'.