It's my favorite season . . .

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower."
    Albert Camus

Composition 101:  Combining Dead Space with the Rule of Thirds is an easy way to make a photo more dramatic and eye-catching.  Be careful not to include too much dead space--the "fill the frame" rule of thumb is still always a good idea.

Butterfly Stalking

Taking a good photo is so satisfying.  And the process of finding a good shot is so...nice.  I don't know how else to describe it!  Hmm...

I'm not always the best at focusing.  Just ask my friends.  ;)  But seriously.  I zone out, I get distracted, I go on tangents.  It's what makes me so charming.  =D  When I'm in "photography mode" it's different though.  My mind sort of slows down.

Today, I had some time to kill and I took myself on a photo safari. (Remind me to write a post about what a photo safari is one day.)  The sun was beginning to set and the lighting was really nice.  I drove by a field and pulled over.  I was going to take pictures of the flowers there, but there were all these butterflies.  So I spent the next several minutes stalking butterflies and trying to take a good shot.  (It didn't quite work out.)  Anyway, as I was following one butterfly, I had a neat thought.  Photography is like butterfly stalking.  At least, it is for me.  Walking slowly, being quiet, looking for little details.  (Okay, this was a lot cooler in my head than it is in writing.  I still wanted to share though.)  I like butterfly stalking.

These might be moths...  I never did learn to tell the difference.  Moths are cool too though.

Little Details.

Composition 101:  Don't be afraid to keep clicking.  Sometimes a shot you haven't purposefully composed will be the winning shot that day.

Texture!

 

Composition 101:  Texture = Good.

Water dances.

 

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water."

                                                  - Loran Eisley 

Composition 101: If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in light!  Capturing that light is oh-so-satisfying.  Pay attention to light when composing a shot.  Get it right and it could mean the difference between a good shot and a great one.