Training Your Eye To Find The Art

I know it’s been awhile folks and I aim to change that soon starting with this post. I’ve devoted this blog to posting information about how to shoot great photos with a point and shoot camera and I will continue to do that but I will be broadening the scope a little more to include photography tips in general and how you can improve your overall photography experience no matter what type of camera you shoot.

Recently I took a trip to Port Aransas on the Texas coast, truly a place like no other. You can find every type of environment in Texas from sprawling mountain-scapes of Big Bend to the beautiful National Forests near Houston to the desert area in the west and the snowy ridges of the plains in the panhandle all the way down to the beautiful sandy beaches of Padre close to Mexico. If you are a photographer, Texas offers you a canvas like no other allowing you the creative freedom to paint with your lens almost any type of landscape your heart desires and with any type of camera happens to be in your hands.

I rarely bust out my DSLR at the beach just because I don’t want to go through the hassle of cleaning it afterwards but on this trip I did and I was glad I did. I got some beautiful sunrise pictures along the Texas coast. I also brought along my smaller yet perfectly capable Canon SD1300 to snap a few photos of the fam frolicking in the warm Gulf waters. As you can see from the gallery below you can always get great photos no matter what is in your hand because as my friend Raul would say “It’s the monkey behind the lens that matters.”  A little editing and attention to backgrounds and you have yourself a nice little memory for you and your family to enjoy for years to come.

Your eye is being trained or has been trained to see the art in a situation. Your eye tells your mind where it’s at and your mind sends the signals to your hands to command the camera to capture the moment. Great photography is not always about great cameras. A great camera in the hands of someone who does not have a great eye is simply a machine. An adequate camera in the hands of someone who has an eye for photography is used to transform light into perfection.

Next time you are out in your yard or your neighborhood, take along the camera and start to look for the art in your surroundings. It’s everywhere.  Change angles and positions, go to places you wouldn’t think of going and see the perspective from that angle to start to train your eye on how to look for art everywhere you go. You’ll be surprised at how you start to see art no matter where or what you are doing and you will see how your training is paying off in your photos.

Until next time, happy shooting!