We will get back to the gear and the technical stuff soon enough. If you’re an inexperienced photographer, I think you need to throw yourself into taking some photos right away. You can learn a lot from getting out there. Most of us are a good judge of composition, whether you know it or not. You probably have a sense of good versus bad, even if you don’t know why. Don’t worry about the why, yet. We’ll get to that. We’re just going to flex our photographic muscles. Our goal for this first photo walk is about composition. The technical aspects of exposure, depth of field, aperture…let’s ignore that for now. We just want to capture. So flip your camera into a fully automatic mode, and let’s take a photo walk.
Where?
I think we all have this misconception that we have to have the perfect place to go on a photo walk. That may be the case if there is something specific you’re trying to do. For example, I like to shoot a lot of architectural ruins, so if I’m in the mood to do that – and if I want to avoid that legal gray area on trespassing – then I might go to a stabilized ruin. [Hint: If you live in the Philadelphia area, Eastern State Penitentiary is one of my go-to places.] But maybe you don’t have a specific plan, that’s okay. Walk around your neighborhood. The goal here is to train yourself to see. Seeing is the most important skill you can learn as a photographer. A great way to teach yourself how to see is to go on a photo walk around an area that is otherwise uninteresting, or at least is very familiar to you.
What?
Newer photographers should look for anything interesting. What’s considered interesting? That’s up to you, but I can promise you that you’ll know when you see it. A rabbit hiding under a car. A bird perched on a window. An interesting mural. An ugly crack in an otherwise pristine building. Maybe it’s just a cool car or a cool house. Take lots of shots (unless you’re shooting film because that could get expensive). Editing yourself in post (back on your computer) usually starts with evaluating and deleting the bad photos (and that’s a skill we’ll eventually talk about). But there’s no harm in loading up your hard drive with bad photos. It’s a bad feeling if you wax nostalgic about the photos you didn’t take.
As you continue in your photographic journey, you will constantly be looking for new things to capture. When I go on photo walks, I like to try to pick a topic and stick with it. Sometimes, these become a mental list of things I like to capture. For example, I have been photographing shopping carts in the wild for decades. If it looks out of place, or if it’s broken, I’m capturing that. Another example, I went on a photo walk around my neighborhood during the COVID pandemic, and I discovered some interesting garages in my neighborhood. It became a thing for that walk. Yet it remains as something I look for – interesting garages I can capture in interesting ways.
You don’t always need a theme. Themes do help you identify subjects. But you’re more than welcome to wander out on a photo walk with no purpose at all. Sometimes, that’s the best way to go about a photo walk: Just look for something interesting.
When?
You should try to do a handful of photo walks over the next several weeks. Therefore, you should try to get out at different times of the day. Ideally, get out to the same places at different times of the day. Some areas will feel different on a weekend vs. a weekday. The light will change throughout the day and the year. Morning and evening light will have longer shadows and will therefore result in a different character than midday sun. While the high midday sun may result in flat-looking photos – at least by some photographers’ standards – flat light may help to emphasize a mood. And maybe you don’t like the midday sun, but you won’t know until you try it for yourself. When I’m doing Street Photography (candid photography of people in public spaces), the midday sun creates a harsh look: People are squinting, trying to shield their eyes, or their heads are dipped. That is a mood that is unrivaled. But if I’m shooting landscapes, like a beach scene or a forest, it is beneficial to look at sunrise and sunset.
My point is that tradition and “popular” is “safe”. You don’t need to be safe. Your goal is to find out what makes you happy. Trust me: Your own satisfaction is all that matters at this stage. When you’re happy, others will be as well.
So About Composition?
I haven’t spoken much about composition, yet. I could ramble on about the rule of thirds, or the golden mean. But if I’m being honest, most of that is bullshit. I know I’m going to ruffle some feathers here, but compositional rules are meant for those who don’t have an appreciation for composition. Photography snobs will tell you to never center your subject in the frame. Wes Anderson would like to have a word with them. He loves his symmetrical compositions. In the creative world, rules are meant as a learning tool, nothing else. I feel that if you’re interested in learning a creative craft like photography, you are also willing to make mistakes and explore the possibilities that may fail. We learn from failure. So why not intentionally fail? So here’s what I think will help you more than just rules: Find a subject, and photograph it multiple times. Center the subject, put it off center in a rule-of-thirds way. Play with a square aspect ratio, or an ultra-wide 20:6. You will grow an appreciation for your art much faster if you are doing what inspires you to continue. And that’s what matters most.
So I realize I’m breaking norms here by letting you all loose with very little guidance. But that’s intentional.. I took all those formal classes. I spent years honing my craft and learning how to shoot better. But the reality is that I learned more about what I didn’t like, and I wasn’t learning what I liked well enough. So looking back on the last thirty years, I feel that I could have done better if I just ignored my instructors and taken photographs of things that made me feel good. I guess my point is that you already know what you like. And you will know when you achieve that goal. So I’m not going to treat you like an ignorant human, I’m going to treat you as a person who desires to get better. And in that way, I feel you are capable of criticizing yourself. You can do this. You can take some great photos. You will also take awful photos, but you will be the judge of that. And I feel pretty confident that you won’t post those awful photos in a public setting (except for humor purposes). So what’s the harm in getting out there and taking tons of photos?
If you find one or two photos from a photo walk, then it was a good photo walk.
