As I stated in my last blog, I have many passions and one of those is photography. I enjoy taking pictures of my flowers, nature and landscapes, but I am not a fan of taking photos of people. I like to get in as close as possible, take 10 photos of each angle and add a light mist here and there. I am by no means a professional photographer, I don’t sell my photos and I rarely post my photos to social media platforms. I take photos so I can look back at where I’ve been and what I’ve planted. I only take photos with my phone, not some crazy expensive camera, and if I edit my photos I do so with a free, basic app. However, I do have a few neat tips and tricks to taking unique photos that you will be proud to display. I am not going to talk about actual camera settings like shutter speed, white balance or any of that other camera mumbo jumbo, because I’m not going to pretend like I understand it. I just like taking photos for the sake of taking cool photos. Below are some of the tricks I use that require little to no effort.
Morning Dew
Waking up early enough so that the sun is rising and the grass is still wet is a great time to take photos. It’s like the reverse Golden-Hour (those few hours at sun set where everything has a gold hue from the sun). The lighting is perfect, the sun is bright and low and shines through the dew on the flower.
Making Your Own Dew
Adding a mist of water to something ordinary can help you achieve a really unique photo. For example, adding a little water to a huge spider web will make the whole web visible. The water drops will be all different sizes so it really adds a bit of asymmetry to a normal web, or just a unique way to catch the light on an ordinary flower.
$10 Clip-on Macro Lens
Like I said above, I only use smart phones to take photos. The majority of my photos have been taken with a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, while some of my newer photos have been taken with a three hundred dollar cheaper phone, the One Plus 6. I have also used a macro lens that clips over the top of the phone so the lens is positioned over the camera. It’s obviously not as clear and intense as a real macro lens but it gets the job done. Macro refers to the type of photography so macro, in terms of photography, means extreme close ups of an object. Sometimes you can get so close and so much detail that no one knows what the actual subject of the photo is.
Camera Angle
Taking photos face on is boring, it’s what your great aunt or grandpa do when they take pictures. Try to find an angle most people do not see ordinary objects from. My favorite position is standing under a tree or angling my phone so it’s taking a photo directly upward at the object. Also centering the object in the exact center of the camera is boring and typical, offsetting the object can add a bit of a different perspective and it’s more pleasing to the eye. In addition, lighting can be incredibly important. If you see the most beautiful flower you’ve ever seen before and its cloudy, it can be hard to recreate that beauty you see into a photo. Finding the one flower that is illuminated can help draw someone’s attention to that specific area first.
Even though some like to claim photography is not an art because you are taking pictures of things that already exist and not making something by scratch, it takes a creative mind to see the beauty in something so insignificant as a blade of grass taller than the rest catching the sun as the sun sets, then getting down on all fours to take that photo. Just like at Red Door Real Estate, we see the beauty in every day Buffalo. If you are looking to move to the area or just move into a new home, call us at 716-768-1177. Or check out our Instagram page for new listings at reddoorrealestatewny.
Rachel Brogan
