New photographers often ask me “but how do you compose?”.

I give them the simple rules (and they are simple – like the Rule of Thirds), but I also point out one very important thing: where you are, and where and how you are looking, is everything in defining what your photo will be.

Take this scene I shot on Lake Ontario a few months ago:

Impressive, no? All you have to do is be there!

(Oh, and know how to expose. oh, and know when to – I had about thirty seconds of this sunset. Oh, and see the possibilities. Oh, and have the right lens.)

Can you see what kind of lens I used? Yes, a very wide angle lens (16mm on a full frame camera, corresponding to a 10mm lens on a crop camera).

Now look at this shot:

Ah, a different scene altogether. But guess what? Same time, all within those thirty seconds. This time I used a 200mm lens on a crop camera, and aimed at the ship in the bottom right.

Yes, one moment can result in two entirely different shots. It’s all in how you look at the world. And that’s what photographers do: show their vision. A photograph is more about you than about the subject!

With that in mind, a very successful 2013. Take some training (you know where to find me!), have your work reviewed, and especially, practice. Have fun – this blog will continue to help you in many ways. All I ask is: share (the little clicky thingies above each post) and tell your friends!

As you will have read, I spent the last few weeks having enormous fun with the kids and their parents shooting mall pictures with Santa.

Usually, these are normal “pictures for grandma”. Standard smiles. Nothing wrong with those, but why not shake them up a little?

Like a scarily fast sleigh:

Or real emotion:

Or personality:

Or interaction:

A Back-to-back pose:

And here’s me (without the beard), giving Santa Props:

There’s so much you can do with a simple, simple setup.

And if you want smiles, then here are my tips of the day:

• Avoid telling boys (and some shy girls) to smile! Rather, try to make them laugh. Anything fun is good.
• Alternately, tell them to laugh. This often gets you smiles.
• Have parents stand behind you, so the child looks at you when looking at the parents.
• After a few smile pictures, do something else – anything. Ask for grumpy faces. Ask for silly faces. Say that smiling is forbidden. Anything to relax them a little. Then go back to regular smiles.
• For little ones, do a game of peek-a-boo behind the camera. This sometimes works quite well to raise a smile.
• Try  toys – Trish, my co-shooter, brought a colourful rattling toy and a cookie monster, and these worked well.

Out of the hundreds of kids I photographed, only one or two were devoid of any expression or personality. Most came out of their shell – some with some effort, but all except a couple worked.

I prefer “fun” and “real” portraits to standard shots, but I shoot both. And I had great fun coming up with some great poses for the parents. They may not buy them, but often do – and at least they get a choice.

Merry Christmas!

Here’s a portrait I made a few days ago. A portrait I am very proud of; very proud indeed:

This portrait shows a young woman apparently reflecting. It raises questions – and as I have said many times, raising questions, in stead of spoon-feeding the answer, is what makes an image effective and interesting.

Here, the questions include: “On what is she reflecting? Why is she sitting there? Why is she looking at the floor? Is she sad? Is she waiting? For what?” Those questions are what matter, more than the answers, which you have to come up with. Her apparent loneliness is emphasized by the empty space around her, the bare couch, her guarded pose: existential loneliness, or just a break?

We do not know. But we can all identify. An image like this makes us think about our own lives, and the experiences we have had. The human condition is deliciously complex, sad, and wonderful; and sharing it with others is what art is about.

The composition also helps. I am not sure analyzing art is all that productive, but if you asked me I would say the following are effective technical elements in this image:

• Bare couch. Simplifying any image is key!
• Simple setting; negative space.
• The use of the rule of thirds.
• Simple black and white.
• A slight vignette.
• The subject’s face is not looking at us and is mainly hidden.

In a technical sense, this is easy. The use of off-camera flash is effective in creating just enough shadows. I used a Canon 1Dx, with an off-camera 430EX through an umbrella. Camera in manual mode, 1/200th sec, f/5.6, 400 ISO; with the flash in remote TTL mode. I used a prime 35mm f/1.4 lens.

You really can take images like this using a very simple setup, so think about subject, story and composition, not about the technical settings.

In a good photo, it is often good to not make your message too obvious. It is better to “talk without saying much”. A photo like this, taken yesterday, “model reading book”, is often more effective in conveying a situation or mood than an explicit image that tries to lay it all out:

Make the viewer put it together. That way the image is much more effective. In the case of the image above, the image benefits from the following elements:

• Black and white.
• Blurred subject, while foreground is sharp.
• Face not visible.
• Rule Of Thirds composition.
• Action (“what is happening here”) is not immediately obvious.

The “not immediately obvious” is key. Are your images always immediately obvious? Like “Spouse Standing in front of Eiffel Tower Smiling at Camera”? Then I suggest you may try some of these techniques to make them more interesting.

One thing I have always told my students: “Include something red”. OK, that is a little exaggerated. But there is a grain of truth!

Look at today’s image, of the Hoover Dam:

Hoover Dam (Photo: © Michael Willems Photographer)

What makes this a good image? Well.. I would say: the wide angle, the colours, the tilt, the rule of thirds, the curves, and, as the cherry on top, the red car. A little contrast like that is great. Juxtapositions. Contrast. Storytelling. And red, in a green and brown and blue nature scene.