In a photo:

• Simplifying is good. Often very good.
• Diagonals can also be very good.
• The Rule of Thirds is also often very good.
• Tilting the camera is a way to simplify.
• Tilting is also a way to create diagonals.
• And to help you get to the Rule of Thirds.

So it stands to reason that if you tilt and simplify a the same time, you may end up with some reasonable images.

A few examples from the other day – taken with the Fuji X100, which is still a great toy. As you learn more about it it gets better.

Because this camera has a fixed lens (35mm, full frame equivalent) you end up tilting instead of zooming in and out – and this makes your pictures better.

Here’s me, the other day – and look at the texture and converging diagonals:

Here’s a salad, served with colour and texture – and with a blurred background that “tells a story by making the viewer put it all together”:

And a few more food and drink snaps:

And a non-food snap: the best calculator series ever made (you do not need an “=” button!)

Can you see a pattern emerge?

Here’s your homework. Go shoot some pictures:

• With a 35mm lens length (real 35, i.e. use 24mm on a crop camera).
• Tilt to simplify or to get diagonals or to be able to compose with the Rule of Thirds.
• Shoot at wide open aperture (low “f-number”).
• Get close.
• Use high enough ISO to get non-blurry images.
• Use available light.

And have fun!