Photography

I just received a nice compliment from my Bead Soup partner. She said "your photography is wonderful. If I dedicated myself to it a bit more I'm sure mine would get better but it really is hard taking good photos of jewelry." Wasn't that sweet of her?

I really like to take pictures so that is a bonus, but I think that a person needs to change their mindset about the picture they are taking.

Ask your self why you are taking this picture. Is it just for the purpose of providing documentation or something else? There is nothing wrong with being a documentator, there is a true purpose and value to this type of photography. Many things might get otherwise missed, and if it's the difference between getting a picture of it or not, do what you have to to capture that memory!

I am trying to work on my compositions, evoking emotion when possible other than straight forward documentation. For example, my husband is a “documentator”, give him a camera to shoot a scene and he takes in everything with individual elements being very small overall, but you get the entire scene. I tend to zoom in as close as possible to eliminate background distractions and to find the nuances or story in the scene.

I find that both types are good but don't forget to zoom in and get close. This can be used for trips, family get-togethers, pets, objects, etc.

Here are some examples:

What story do these pictures tell? What (if any) are the emotional responses? What do you prefer; the wide-angle, miss nothing or the close-up, focal? I'm curious what other people prefer.