A Photo a Week Challenge: Off-Center
You absolutely shouldn’t put the picture in the center of the photograph except when that’s the right place to put it. The “rules” of photography are not laws etched in stone. They are suggestions, sometimes warnings, and are inevitably advisory. Except when I warn you to look around when you take a picture. Do not stand you family in front of the dumpster or trash bins. It doesn’t make a really pretty background. You can call that as much of a law you will get from me. These pictures are off-center because that’s the name of this challenge.
Photo: Garry Armstrong
Garry at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown
European House Sparrow
Hairy Woodpecker
Other things that I’ve learned? Shooting in full and bright sunlight can make it hard to focus, tends to produce refraction and weird reflections and in portraits, results in sharp shadows that are unflattering. Shade is better and lightly overcast is best.
Share this:
Categories: #Birds, #Photography, Portrait, Wildlife
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Lovely photos 🙂
LikeLike
I totally agree. I went through my archives and found more than a few dead-centre photos. Not all work. But some do. Just as not all off-centre photos work. I like those bird feed photos. The colour works wonderfully.
LikeLike
Photography IS an art, so rules are really “usually good advice.” But it doesn’t work for all occasions. Sometimes, right down the middle is the place to be. Especially when shooting roads and bridges. Assuming you can find a place to stand and not get run over by a truck, straight down the middle 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like that caveat about not being run over … sometimes the surroundings place limitations on the photographer. I have a friend who pushes those boundaries and he has scars and a couple of broken bones to show for it.
LikeLike
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve nearly fallen off cliffs or over the side of boat because I was more interested in the photograph than I was in my surrounding. Usually Garry was there to grab may and suggest that maybe I’d like to look around me? Like, at the traffic or the waves pounding the rocky shoreline? Good to have a backup 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed, it is. 🙂
LikeLike
Good tips, Marilyn.
LikeLike
Photography isn’t hard if you have a decent pair of eyes and something like a camera. Just not in front of the dumpsters. My father was a famous “dumpster” photographer.
LikeLike
Subjects are much more interesting off-center.
LikeLike
The picture is more interesting, but there are times when right up the middle is perfect too. It’s an art.
LikeLiked by 1 person