This week I tried a lot of different things in my photos from the TEN: Ten Ways to Improve Your Craft. None of Them Involve Buying Gear that Professor Levine summarized for us.  I tried to use all of them, but I don’t have a camera that can change lenses–only a phone.

I think the one that affected me the most was the Great Foreground, Great Background tip.  In order to take a good photo you need to have a good background as well as what you focus on.  Everything has to come together well.  I think the best picture I took trying this was the lighter photo because of what was in it.  The background has lots of dimension and lines with the lining up of the porches and the front obviously focuses on the lighter.  However, there’s also cracks in the wall of the porch that gives depth, and even layers in between the porches.  There’s a lot splashed into one place.  One of the coolest pictures I’ve ever taken.

Another one I used is the Rule of Thirds tip, where you line up the picture with a grid on your camera.  I had never done the grid before but I experimented with it a lot this week.  It also helped line things up as you can see, I could line it up and level it with the stairs on this one.  You can see how flat and even it is.

My third tip was one called “Squint” where it basically says that you should pay attention to the lighting, highlights, shadows, etc to make a good picture.  I picked this photo because I the basis of the photo IS the lighting with the refractions of the glass as well as the shadows.  It’s cool.