Trust Your Eye

In the past, I have ‘trusted my eye’ and taken photographs without thinking about it too much, whereas other times, I have taken photographs after deliberating for some time about the centering, light, background, object position, etc. I have found that, more often than not, the best photographs arise from just seeing something and photographing it without thinking too much about it.

Now im not saying that you should go out and just be ‘trigger happy’ as there are times when you will need to really think about the lighting and background etc, but don’t always expect these photographs to come out any better.

A prime example of this in my experience is when I have been out and about in the countryside and have been taking photographs of scenic views and areas.  A lot of the time the first photo I take is the best, as I just see it and photograph it,  although I do usually take several more with slight adjustments as well. The original photo being the best is usually because after the first shot, I have thought about the scene too much and have tried to take the same photo at different angles to make it better and more interesting.  Occasionally this has given me a slightly better photo, but for 95% of the time, the initial photograph has been the best.

So I would suggest going with your initial ‘gut’ feeling and just take the photograph without thinking long and hard over the other elements as, for me anyway, these turn out to be the best of the bunch!