Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Mistakes Make the Best Pictures


In the summer of 2006 I went on safari to Kenya, Africa. I wanted to take this trip for 20 years and was filled with excitement. My little digital camera didn’t have a viewfinder like my 35mm point and shoot film camera did. With my film camera, I had to hold the camera against my face to keep it steady, but with  the digital camera I had to hold out my arms in front of me so I could see the image through the two inch screen. I wasn’t used to taking pictures this way and as a result I dropped my arms slightly each time I took a picture. To compensate, I took five or six shots of the same subject until I was happy with how it was framed.

When we encountered the zebras, I couldn’t believe how beautiful they were. I just had to get a picture of one of the zebra’s face with the surrounding grass framing his body. After several attempts, my arms got tired and I cut off his ears, nose or most of his body. I was frustrated at the shots until I noticed this one. I wasn’t planning on cutting off so much of his body – hind legs and top of his back and part of his ear, but it still looked good to me so I saved it. It wasn’t until later when I compared this photo to the more traditional portraits of zebras that I realized how interesting this image really was. The others were boring compared to this one which is why it is one of my favorite photos. 

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Excerpt from: Moments in Time Captured Forever; You Don't Need a Good Camera to Take Good Pictures

DebraRubyPhotography.com



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