Photography makes my heart race. It sends shivers down my spine. It makes me feel lightheaded. Lovesick as I chase after the next photo.
Before I took journalism and mass media classes in college, I didn’t know how to take photos or record videos professionally. I did my own thing, what I thought looked good.
The Journalism and Mass Media classes I took helped me learn how to take clean, appealing photos and video.
That being said, I am not a professional photographer. It’s more of a hobby.
Contrary to popular belief, pursuers of photographers “don’t need an expensive camera” to take good photos, according to New York Times writer Geoffrey Morrison. Luckily, I get now get paid by the Argonaut for my photography. What was once a hobby is slowly turning into a job. I encourage all beginning photographers to never sell themselves short. Having a nice camera or phone is not a requirement to take great photos!
It’s about having a vision; your eyes are the lens, and your eyelids are the shutters.
At first, you can use the camera grid lines to place the object nicely in the camera frame until your eye gets trained to see it without the lines.
Don’t place objects or the focus of your shot in the center. Put it off a bit to the left or right of the camera screen. Give it depth in the background with a barn or in the forefront with a person’s face.
Beauty is in the details. Look closely multiple times. You’ll get a new perspective every time you look through your natural lens, your eyes.
I use the Adobe Photoshop Express app on my Samsung (don’t judge) phone to edit my photos. I’ve used filters to create moody, bright or natural-looking photos. I’ve sharpened my photo quality, brought down the brightness, focused the attention of an eye to a specific object in the photo, enhanced the colors or created black and white photos and so much more.
Don’t worry about editing rules when it’s a hobby or your own personal business. Yes, you want the photos to turn out nice, but you can still have fun with colors, backgrounds and more.
“Experimenting is the key, no matter what camera you’re using,” Morrison stated. “For every amazing image, a professional photographer takes, there will be hundreds, probably thousands, of images that are terrible and never see the light of day. Like everything, this takes practice and experimentation to see what works.”
You don’t need a nice camera to take photos, you have a pocket-sized camera that you carry around all the time. Even with the negatives of cellphones, when it comes to capturing precious moments in time and sharing it with the world and those we love, it does a pretty good job.
An article written by professional photographer Matt Chesebrough examines steps that can be taken to better phone photography. Among those steps, Chesebrough advises holding the phone with both hands while tucking the elbows into the body. I learned this same tip in my JAMM classes.
Furthermore, using the volume button to take the photo instead of the button on the camera app will help manage blurriness and angles.
Photography takes time and practice to become better at it. Don’t expect perfection from every photo. Do your best at the time, then make your next photo better than the previous one.
I look back at the photography on my Instagram page and, at times, wondering what I was thinking when I took a photo.
I don’t like bragging about my photography, but I know I’ve improved from about four years ago when I really turned photography into a hobby. I wanted people to see the world the way I saw it, not to force a perspective, but to show people what they’re missing or give them something to appreciate.
Remember, there’s so much to learn, explore, to fall in love with. It’s a lifelong story of passion, endurance, patience and growth.
Kim Stager can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @journalismgoals.