National Geographic

For today’s photo tips, I will share with you some wonderful things I picked up from www.nationalgeographic.com. As I’m sure most of you know, National Geographic magazine is known as much for its brilliant photography of all aspects of the world as for the eye-opening articles. The photo tips on this site can be found under the heading “Path to Adventure”. Though some of what they share may be common sense to many photographers, the strength of this site is in the examples they provide to reinforce their points.
One great tip that I think every photographer everywhere should hear is “if you see it, shoot it!” Often, a photographer will focus far too intensely on capturing a single great picture; especially when shooting nature, allotting a lot of time to one photograph could result in you missing so many other opportunities for great photos. Spending your time taking many pictures instead of a single picture lets you experiment and capture more of your surroundings. Also, as said on the site, “You may find that your spontaneous photos are better than the ones you spent a long time composing.”
Of the example photographs that accompany this tip, my favorite is this one taken by Mark Thiessen:













Another simple but worthy tip found on the site is plainly: Get Closer! Don’t be afraid to zoom in or get closer to your subjects. Many times, the intended subject of a shot gets lost in the clutter that surrounds it. This clutter can be eliminated by zooming in on what you really want to focus on. The next 2 photos are also taken by Mark Thiessen. The difference in the style and quality of the picture is very clear, and the great effect that Mark achieved by zooming in is undeniable:


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Well that's all for today! Have a good one!
-Valerie