What are leading lines and how can they improve our images? Using leading lines to improve photography composition is a technique I have encountered over and over in my photography learning and it is something worth dedicating some time to as it is a technique that really can make a difference to the look of an image. I realise that I am using leading lines more and more often and have found that it is useful to have some knowledge of how leading lines work in order to know how they can be used to improve images. What are leading lines? Leading lines are lines that are used by the photographer to lead the viewer’s eye into the frame, towards a subject or point of interest. They can also create depth in a photograph and are often considered to be one of the most effective compositional elements in photography. The strongest visual impact is achieved when the lines draw the viewer’s eye towards something that is in the scene, in other words, when there is a person or object at the end of the lines. There is, however, merit in having lines that lead off into the distance, where it is left to the imagination to decide where they are leading, although these may be more accurately described as paths rather than leading lines as they don’t lead to a specific point. The road and the clouds both seem to lead the eye to the sea The path leads the viewer through the frame to the people at the end The road conveys a sense of movement down towards the sea This line may be more accurately described as a path rather than a leading line as it doesn’t lead to a specific point Why are leading lines an effective aid to composition? Leading lines are effective chiefly because our eyes are naturally drawn to lines, and they are often the element that pulls us towards an image. I have often found my attention drawn to an image with powerful lines, whether in photography or art, even from a distance. In the environment I find my eye led by a fence, a railing, a bridge, to what is in the distance, and am naturally drawn to incorporating these lines in my images. Another reason that leading lines are effective is that they create a sense of movement in the image as our eye moves from one point to another. This sense of movement gives more interest to the photograph. What makes a good leading line? Almost any type of line can become a leading line. Common examples are roads, paths, railway tracks, bridges, a row of trees or a winding river. In fact, it is possible to use almost any type of line as a leading line if it serves to draw the eye towards a certain point in the frame. Parallel lines can provide even greater impact as they create a sense of depth in your image as well as drawing the viewer’s eye into the distance. It is almost as though, caught between the two lines, you have no choice but to follow where they lead. Curved lines, S shaped lines, diagonal lines and wavy lines are good choices as leading lines, as is shooting down from the top of a spiral staircase or shooting upwards from the bottom of a vertical line. Your eye will naturally follow the spiral all the way down to the bottom or the vertical line upwards. The only way the eye can go here is up S lines and diagonal lines convey a sense of motion and depth. Lines can be inferred also; a person gazing out to sea can lead the viewer’s eye in the same direction. These two images might have what are referred to as soft lines. They are not definite lines but they do lead the eye through the frame to a distant subject, the sea Curved lines encourage the viewer to stay a little longer as they weave in and out through the image. The interaction of light and shadow can produce interesting lines. I think the curved line leads the eye around the shoreline and out to sea The curving line of the rooftops leads my eye into the frame, although there could have been a better composition to the shot A change in perspective, such as getting down low or shooting up high, can change the impact of the shot. Clifford Pickett explores this in his video How To Compose Your Photos With Leading Lines This video gives a good example of the use of a leading line in landscape photography. Landscape photographers often use foreground to create interest, and when a leading line starts from the foreground of the image it can create depth and perspective and give a focus for the viewer before it leads the eye into the distant interest, which might be a mountain, a tree or a rock. Clifford Pickett suggests starting the line at the corner and allowing it to run right through the image, also taking the viewer on that journey through the image. Conclusion I have a lot to learn about photography and about the use of leading lines as a compositional tool, but my intuition tells me that this technique can improve my photography so it is something I try to experiment with and use as often as I can. From reading and watching those who use this technique well I realise that just snapping a road or railway track does not make a good photograph. I need to know exactly where to shoot from, what perspective to take and how to frame the shot so that I use the leading line to the best advantage. Further reading and some examples of the good use of leading lines https://expertphotography.com/how-to-use-leading-lines-to-improve-your-composition/ https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-use-leading-lines-for-better-compositions/ https://iceland-photo-tours.com/articles/photography-techniques/how-to-use-leading-lines-for-better-compositions-in-landscape-photography

Are you new to photography? Are you thinking about starting photography as a hobby? Do you have some questions and are not sure where to find the answers? I invite you to read on and you just might find the information you are looking for. Recently I had a conversation with someone who is thinking seriously about starting photography. Just as I had when I came back to photography, she has a background in photography from many years ago, but her skills are rusty, and she has not kept abreast of new technologies except for smartphone technologies. She was interested in finding out about my experience of returning to photography, so she decided to ‘pick my brains’ on the topic! This ‘commonly asked questions’ post is based on her questions and my answers. Q. Why do I need a ‘dedicated’ camera? I have a good camera on my phone. A. That is true, and I have used my phone camera on many occasions when I didn’t have my DSLR with me and I was pleased with the results. However, I don’t regret having bought my DSLR as it pushed me to learn photography - to get to know about aperture and shutter speed, to know what ISO means and when to use it, to have choice concerning shooting modes. If I wish to, I can shoot in fully automatic or semi-automatic mode or I can go full throttle and use full manual mode where I make all the creative decisions, rather than letting the camera decide. Also, I can experiment with the results obtained with different lenses. To sum up, the smartphone is convenient and does a good job in many situations but, in my view, it doesn’t give us that real photography experience. Q. Ok, then which camera do you recommend I buy? A. Not an easy question to answer. Initially, I went for an entry level camera as I was not sure how committed I would be to photography in the long term. I did a lot of research and settled on a Nikon D3400 (recently replaced by Nikon D3500). The deciding factors were great battery life, not too heavy to carry around, great image quality for an entry level camera and it comes at a good price. I wrote the following blog to describe the decision-making process: https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/starting-point-which-camera It’s not a perfect camera. There are a few obvious omissions which I would like to have now that I know a bit more about photography. This camera has no touchscreen, the screen doesn’t tilt and Nikon doesn’t provide weather sealing on this camera, which can be a disadvantage for landscape or travel photography, but overall, the D3400 is, in my opinion, a good beginner camera. I might even suggest an upgrade to the D3500, which reportedly has a battery rating of 1500 shots, compared to 1200 shots which the D3400 can capture, and is a bit lighter without much increase in price. Image taken with Nikon D3400 My second camera is an Olympus E-M10 Mark 11. Again, I did a lot of research before buying this camera. I was taking a trip to Italy and wanted something lightweight, but which could take good pictures, particularly in low light. I looked at a range of ‘point and shoot’ options but to get the features that I wanted, such as viewfinder and good image quality, I had to look at the upper end of the market and realised that most of these cameras could soon be surpassed by advancements in smartphone cameras. I reckoned that going for a mirrorless camera might be a better option if I wanted to ‘future proof’ my camera kit, since these cameras can take a range of lenses. The Olympus has a few advantages over the Nikon such as a touchscreen and image stabilization, which reduces blurring due to camera shake. On the downside, though, it only captures 320 shots before the battery runs out, so carrying a replacement battery is highly recommended. I am happy with my choice as it is fairly compact and has a sort of retro look, which I like. Image taken with Olympus E-M10 Mark 11 Q. What about lenses? A. Most cameras come bundled with a kit lens. My Nikon came with 18-55mm, while the Olympus came as a camera deal with two lenses, a 40-150mm zoom and a 14-42mm. Kit lenses are designed to give you some versatility and, since they don’t add a huge cost to the price of the camera, they let you get a feel for what the camera can do. I did move on from the Nikon kit lens to a prime lens and a zoom lens. I’m not by any means expert at using lenses so would refer a beginner to some of the many sites that provide expert reviews, such as https://www.dxomark.com/category/lens-reviews/ . Reviews by genuine users are often as helpful as expert reviews, although they can vary a lot. While the kit lens does offer some versatility to start your photography journey, buying your next lens might depend on what it is you like to photograph. Landscape lenses will differ from lenses for close-up work, while certain other lenses might be considered best for street photography. Even when shooting the same subject, different lenses will give different results. A wide-angle lens, a telephoto and a prime lens are the three lenses that seem to cover most of what we need as beginner photographers, so these are the lenses I have opted for. I recently published a blog about my camera set up and the lens selection I find useful as a learner at photography. You will find the link here I like using the 50mm fixed lens as it allows me to experiment with bokeh (blurry background) Interesting fact It is reported that Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the greatest street photographers of all time, frequently used the 50mm as his lens of choice. Q. What else will I need as well as camera and lenses? A. A camera bag is a must. I thought I could use a regular backpack but soon realised that it was neither safe nor convenient. After a lot of research, I found a bag with numerous sections, the main section containing padded inserts. These provide adjustable compartments to hold camera and lenses as well as space for a spare battery, lens cleaning kit and other accessories. The bag also has a waist strap which gives added back support. Camera bags vary enormously in price but with a bit of research you can find the one that suits you. Most photographers will suggest that you invest in a tripod, particularly for landscape photography. While it will help to avoid blurry pictures due to camera shake, a tripod is not always easy to carry with you. So far, I have not invested in one although many photographers will claim that it should be your number one accessory. A spare battery is a useful item as there is nothing worse than being out on a photography shoot and realising that you have forgotten to charge the battery (it has happened to me!) As I said previously, the Nikon D3400 gives around 1200 shots on a battery charge, which is pretty impressive and will easily give me a day’s shooting, but the Olympus mirrorless camera only allows me to shoot a fraction of that number so I always need to have a spare battery handy. Q. Cameras today have a lot of buttons and dials. Did you have difficulty in getting to grips with them all? A. Short answer, yes. Ever since I got my first SLR camera, many years ago, I have loved taking pictures, but hated all the technical stuff. For a long time I tended to stay in auto mode, but this time around I decided to learn properly. That’s not to say I liked it any better initially, but this time I have given myself time to get used to different settings, to experiment a bit more and to take the camera out to practise all I am learning before moving on. I can see the value of learning about the main shooting modes (namely, ‘Auto’ mode, ‘Program’ mode, ‘Aperture Priority’, ‘Shutter Priority’) and when to use each, and to avoid the ‘scene’ modes which are basically just allowing the camera to decide how to shoot. I can even say that I now enjoy knowing how to use those buttons and dials! I took the following images on Auto mode when I first started back to photography. While this mode does help you get a feel for the camera again, it is important to move beyond this mode if you want to learn photography. Auto mode turns your DSLR into a point and shoot camera, and DSLRs are much more than this. I would recommend this post from digital photography school, which really is an ultimate guide to learning how to use your first DSLR. Q. You obviously need some photography skills to get out of Auto mode. Did you go to a photography class to learn the skills you need? A. I started my journey with an online class which gave me a good grounding in the basics. I also found lots of useful and knowledgeable articles suitable for beginners, like the one mentioned above from https://digital-photography-school.com/. I supplemented this with some YouTube videos on specific topics. I gradually got to know the photography teachers whose approach I liked and took some of their courses and workshops online. I did one face to face workshop on street photography, which I enjoyed and found to be very beneficial as I picked up a lot of tips from the one-to-one interaction that can be missed in online courses. In addition, it was good to get out ‘in the field’ with other learners, to share problems, get advice, have questions answered and feel part of the photography learning community. I intend to do more face to face workshops in the future. Another feature of the learning process is having my photographs critiqued by others and there are opportunities for this in some online communities, particularly those run by reputable photographers who have an ethical approach to online interactions. One of the most important things is to get out and practice what you learn. Sitting in front of a book or computer reading about photography only gets you so far. You need to get the camera in your hand, get out and take plenty of photographs. Practice may not quite make perfect, but it does make improvement. Q. I hear photographers talking about post-processing. Is it necessary? A. There are some who feel that any type of processing is wrong, that it somehow leaves our image less authentic, that a digitally enhanced photograph is not an ‘honest’ image. I have been guilty of thinking in this way in the past, but I have been proven wrong by those with superior knowledge on the subject and I now realise that every image is digitally processed to some degree. Some of this processing is done by the camera (or phone) software, over which we have little control, and some is done by the photographer in what is called ‘post production’, which gives us a degree of creative control over how we want our final images to look. Regardless of whether we have a strong opinion on this topic or not, the truth is that, while the camera may not lie, it does not see as the human eye sees. Ultimately it is a machine that processes what it sees and produces the best image of that. As the photographer, we know what we wanted to capture and how we wanted our vision to turn out, so we can try to achieve what is close to our vision by using an image processing program. I use Lightroom and enjoy the post-processing part of the photography art. For a quick edit on my phone I use Snapseed. There are many other popular (some free) programs which allow us to make small changes to our images which make a big difference to the final result. This is a photo straight out of camera This photo has had some minor enhancements in Lightroom Q. Do you prefer a particular style of photography? A. I get asked that question a lot. I started doing landscape photography as I seemed to be drawn to that but I quickly realised that it was difficult to get a good landscape photo without spending a lot of time travelling to find the right location and having specific lenses. I still enjoy doing landscape photography when I can and continue to learn ways to improve my landscape images. As I wrote in a recent blog, I particularly love coastal landscapes and doing photography is an added incentive for making a trip to the coast. I have to confess, I didn’t think I would like street photography so I challenged myself to take a face-to-face workshop last summer. That gave me a whole new outlook on this genre of photography which I can now appreciate more than I did previously. Street photography is about the art of capturing candid moments and natural human interactions, it is about storytelling through photography and as such it has its own special appeal. I’m glad I opened my mind and made that discovery. Overall, I think most of my photography falls into the category of nature photography. When I look back over my images, I find that a lot of them are nature photographs of one kind or another. I seem to be naturally drawn to this genre of photography, particularly as it can encompass most of what I want to do in photography. Nature photography has something for everyone in that you can capture great images in nature with whatever equipment you have at hand, even a smartphone camera, and you can adjust your images to suit whatever gear you have available rather than having to buy specialist equipment as may be the case for landscape photography. I wrote a blog called 10 tips for better nature photography which I think sums up why this photography form appeals to me. Q. Why do you enjoy photography so much? A. I think the answer is that to me, photography is such an all-round pursuit - and it has benefits in many areas of our lives. It supports our mental health by keeping our mind alert and active; it involves learning new skills such as making choices and decisions, working with different technologies and communicating with others, all ways in which we need to be mentally alert. From a physical health point of view, the very nature of photography means that we will be out and about, walking and taking in the fresh air. I often find that I walk far further than I intended to walk and for a longer time than I intended to spend as I lose myself in the art of finding and making my images. I believe that photography ticks the box regarding emotional health also as it is certainly a pursuit that grounds us in the present moment and, for me, the very act of heading out to capture some images has a calming effect. Some people go for a run when they are stressed, some do yoga or mindfulness, so people go the gym or participate in a sport. I take my camera and head out to the park, the coast, the countryside, even into the city streets. If my camera is my companion, I leave stress behind. The topic of the importance of photography as a hobby but also as it contributes to a healthy way of life is one that interests me and I have written a few posts on this theme, which you might like to dip into on my blog. This is a recent one: https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/why-i-believe-photography-has-sustained-me-through-troubled-times

I have always been a Samsung user. My first smartphone was an early version of the Samsung Galaxy S series and I have tended to upgrade to the latest Galaxy every two years. I like Samsung phones and find that they have quite good battery life, an important consideration if they are being used as a camera. I have occasionally considered the possibility to moving to iPhone but have always resisted the attraction and stuck with Samsung. However, my Galaxy S9+ recently came to the end of its life so I was in the market for an upgrade. Once again, the possibility of change loomed. "The best camera is the one you have with you" Over the last two years, since I have become serious about photography, I have increasingly come to agree with the well-used phrase, The best camera is the one you have with you. Since the camera most of us have with us is a phone camera, this aspect of the latest phone has become the most important consideration for me in choosing a phone upgrade. Hence, when faced with upgrading my Galaxy S9+ my research led me to a choice between the Galaxy S20 and the iPhone 11 phone ranges. I did extensive research and discovered that they are both excellent phones with exceptionally good cameras and neither phone was a clear winner over the other in every category reviewed. My choice had to boil down to what I was looking for in a camera. My main purpose in choosing a phone camera was to have a viable alternative to my dedicated camera, one which would produce sharp pictures and give a real photography experience rather than simply producing good snapshots. With the number of iPhone courses and tutorials online I was slightly biased towards going for iPhone, but I did weigh the pros and cons of each in terms of my own requirements. I considered four phones - the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S20 and S20+. (The Samsung Galaxy Ultra has the best camera reviews in the S20 range but it is considerably more expensive). Below are my findings. As these results are based on my own requirements from a phone camera, they may not be useful to everyone, but I hope they will be of help if you are in the market for a new phone camera that can be an aid in learning photography. (You might also like to read my post How my smartphone helped my photography here) The Choice Expert reviews based on lab tests are available from many sources online. My review simply outlines the considerations that helped me make my choice, based on what I required. Samsung Galaxy S20 Pros Triple camera array 128 GB basic storage with options to expand 3x optical zoom telephoto lens Cons Samsung images tend to be over saturated compared to natural look of iPhone images Night Mode not as good as on iPhone Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus Pros Specs as S20, with quad camera set up (addition of depth vision camera) Good battery life 5G ready Cons Expensive Unsure of benefit of depth vision camera to justify extra cost iPhone 11 Pros Images have a natural look Improved Night Mode compared to previous iPhones Cons Dual lens set up (No telephoto lens) 64 GB basic storage option iPhone 11 Pro Pros Triple camera array Images have a natural look Decent battery life Considered by many reviewers to be one of the best smartphones on the market Has optical image stabilisation on telephoto and wide angle lenses Excellent Night Mode Cons Expensive 64 GB storage, no option to expand Not 5G ready I based my choice on the results of several reviews which tended to agree that the iPhone camera produced good, natural, true-to-life images. Some reviewers even suggested that the crisp images and dynamic range of the iPhone Pro can match the images of entry level DSLRs in some cases. There was general agreement that Samsung’s images were slightly more saturated, or look more over processed, which I find to be the case with my Galaxy S9+. Samsung gives more storage, but that is not a priority for me as I mainly use online storage or transfer images to computer. The absence of a telephoto lens on the iPhone 11 meant that I didn’t consider it, as being able to zoom in closely at times gives another perspective to images, which I like. The 11 Pro was the winner between the two iPhones. It was at this point that I was tempted towards the 3x optical zoom of the Samsung Galaxy. However, I moved on to look at the low light images of both phones and as the iPhone was the clear winner here, I felt that this was a more beneficial advantage for my photography development. The Verdict If the phone rather than its camera is your priority then the Samsung Galaxy S20+, with its 128 GB basic storage option (versus 64 GB basic iPhone storage), its excellent battery life and the fact that it is 5G ready, might be the phone you will opt for. However, the tipping point for me is the fact that the iPhone 11 Pro tops almost all the phone camera reviews. With its powerful processor and top specs I know I won’t go wrong with the iPhone 11 Pro in phone terms. Add to that a top-notch camera and the final choice for me had to be the iPhone 11 Pro. See below for some expert reviews of smartphone cameras. https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/best-camera-phone https://www.trustedreviews.com/best/best-camera-phones-3520817 https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/best-cameraphone The Outcome I have been using the iPhone 11 Pro for around two months now. It has proven itself to be a great substitute for my dedicated camera on more than a few occasions, and on some outings I have brought only my iPhone so that I have to use it exclusively. The three lens options provide lots of variety for image creation, images are sharp and look natural, and I find that the camera will do its job well if I do mine. Regardless of how good the camera may be, it cannot turn a bad photographer into a good photographer, but it does give a learner photographer many learning opportunities to produce pleasing images, to capture images from different perspectives, to work on composition, to look for great light and, most of all, to never miss a photo opportunity. These are some of my images so far. All of the first set of images are straight out of camera, with the exception of checking white balance and straightening wonky horizon lines! They were taken on a spontaneous pit-stop as I travelled home recently. I did a small amount of processing on the following images to improve lighting and bring up detail in shadows. As the photos are not RAW files the possibilities for post processing are limited, but small enhancements are possible. I like the fact that I can focus on something in the foreground and have a blurry background These photographs were taken in low light conditions. The Question Remains… While I am happy with the choice I made in terms of smartphone camera I do still ask myself, will it begin to replace my DSLR and mirrorless camera? I hope to answer that question in an upcoming blog.

For most of us, the last few months have been difficult in one way or another. Life as we knew it has changed. Things we took for granted are no longer ours for the taking. Travel (at least outside our own country) is denied to us; attending concerts, festivals and events are literally a non-event this year. Even having large get-togethers with family and friends has been curtailed for the immediate future. Despite the restrictions we are trying to make the best of a situation which we could not have foreseen and would never have believed could happen to us. We have had to find ways to sustain ourselves through this time of uncertainty. I know many people who have started a running regime and who find it has changed their life; others have started to practice yoga or mindfulness, others have created something lasting in their home or garden. Many people have taken up and a new hobby over this time and others would love to try something new, something that will absorb them and take them away from being over-focused on what is going on in the world around them. I have written several posts in praise of photography on this site as I became aware of how valuable it is in my life. When I was starting out on my journey into the world of photography I could not have foreseen that it would be the pursuit that would sustain me through a world pandemic, but that is exactly what it has done. There are numerous articles and blog posts written about why photography is such a great hobby, and these are worth reading. In this post I want to outline the ways that I believe photography has been such a lifeline for me and why I recommend it as more than just a hobby. Although I consider that my real photography journey began just two years ago, I actually first became interested in photography as an 11 year old child when I badgered my father to buy me a camera (with the promise that I would save my pocket money to get the films developed – those were the days!). It was my faithful friend for a few years as I documented our daily lives as children, and I still have some of those old photos! As an adult I came back to photography when a friend gave me his old SLR camera (and manual!) to experiment with. I had a vision of giving up my job to become a photographer, but that vision didn’t materialise, and I never really got to grips with that camera. Fast forward to two years ago when I decided to take early retirement from my lifetime career in education. I wanted and needed a new challenge, and a chance conversation started me thinking about my past love of photography, and so the journey began. This is one of my earliest images on my new journey. I liked the reflection in the water and the little plant in the foreground. I still have fond memories of that first outing with my brand new camera, almost two years ago Why I believe photography is such a great hobby Below are just some of the reasons why I would recommend photography to anyone wishing to try something new at this time. Photography is mentally stimulating This is an ongoing journey of learning. While many people can stop after learning the basics (as I did in the past), there is always more to learn in photography. In fact, I have now realised that I will never stop learning and improving my craft. There are skills to learn and practise, inspirational photographers to follow and learn from, more skills to learn and practise, expert advice to read, always a new perspective to consider from a different teacher, a community of learners to engage with and share with, and then even more skills to learn and practise and so on the journey goes. The various perspectives and angles from which to learn this craft mean that it is forever stimulating and exciting; a lifetime adventure of discovery. Photography keeps the mind active; it keeps us curious. Photography helps us to become more observant, not just when we are out shooting, but at other times too. It can force us to look beyond the obvious, to investigate more deeply. It encourages us to examine life from different perspectives and by putting thought into our photos and sharing the photos and the process with others, we can help inspire someone else Photography nourishes your creative side Photography is an ideal way to inspire and nourish your creative side. I recently wrote a number of blogs addressing this area of creativity: https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/can-creativity-help-in-a-time-of-crisis-and-uncertainty https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/6-ways-to-reignite-your-creative-spark I firmly believe that being creative, no matter what our chosen area of creativity, is a way to support our mental health. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. -Daisaku Ikeda To my mind, photography is an ideal creative pursuit. It challenges us to see what is around us and try to document what we see, to look at things from different perspectives, to experiment, evaluate, adjust, improve. Anthony Epes, a photographer and teacher for whom I have a lot of admiration, says that “Taking photos is more than just pressing a shutter…an artist is something we all are inside and photography is our journey/path in finding that inner artist.” Every time I go out with my camera I am looking to find a creative way to interpret a scene or to represent a subject. I will move around, get down low, find a higher angle from which to shoot, look for an interesting foreground or background, frame the subject in the most effective way, look for a leading line, consider how the image will look to the viewer. In short, I will try to capture the most compelling image I can. This is how photography ignites our creative spark - it keeps us thinking, experimenting, assessing what we do and always looking for a better way to do something. I love the creativity which the smartphone camera can give. It adds another dimension to my photography, with the added advantage that it is always available Photography is an aid to reflection and mindfulness During times of trouble and confusion I always find the need to go within, to become more reflective, to listen to positive messages rather than the constant barrage of negativity that seems to dominate the media. Photography has been a constant aid to mindfulness for me. Walking in my local park, by the sea, in the countryside, camera in hand, looking for a photo opportunity, has given me so many wonderful opportunities to slow down, to observe, to be quiet in nature. I wrote the following blog earlier this year, just before lock down, and it sustained me through that time to know that this experience could not be taken away. https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/photography-a-gateway-to-mindfulness Even when I was limited to a 2km radius, I could find a secluded spot, take my camera, and be totally immersed in the natural world around me. It is said that getting into the habit of appreciating small moments of our lives is good for our mental health. Capturing some of these small moments, seeing beauty around us, moves us away from negativity, at least while we are engaged in the pursuit. Taking pictures of everyday moments immerses us in those moments and can change the ordinary to the extraordinary Photography supports physical health It goes without saying that photography is a great support for our physical health. It is largely (though not exclusively) an outdoor pursuit; it involves walking, being in nature, breathing in fresh air and most of the time it takes us away from the world of traffic, crowds and fumes. Over the last few months I have walked on beaches, hiked up hills, trekked across cliffs, climbed mountain paths, meandered along riverbanks and trodden a well worn path through my local park. I have gone out in all weathers and, with the exception of very wet days, have managed to get photographs on all of them. Being outside in nature gives me the opportunity to breathe more deeply of the freshest air, and to move, which must be a help to physical health. After two years practising photography, I have more interests, I am more active, more creative and I have learned so much. I am more knowledgeable about photography, but also realise that I am on an unending journey which has always more to reveal. There will always be something more to learn, something new to motivate and excite you on this journey Photography expands your horizons Photography has brought me to new places in search of a photograph, it has introduced me to new people and provided me with many new contacts to whom I can turn for support. Some of these are online contacts and support groups, but they have proved to be a great resource to enhance my photography practice. One of the most rewarding aspects of photography has been travelling to new places and meeting new people. Whether travelling around the country, stopping off at interesting places and encountering people who love to stop for a chat, or having the courage to approach people on a street photography walk (on the suggestion of the workshop facilitator), I have found that people love to talk about place they are visiting and what they are doing. In travelling around my own country, I have recently stopped at places I have passed so many times without realising the beauty they held. Another aspect of the art of taking photographs is the awareness of the past, of the lives of people who are gone and who left their mark in places that we now visit. I recently did a photography trip with a friend who has a deep love of the history of our country and it was a very meaningful and thought-provoking experience as we considered the lives of those gone before us, their creations that still exist in our environment and how the lives of these people still have an influence on the present. Taking photographs in those places seemed to have an additional special feel. Conclusion There are many more aspects of photography that make it such a great hobby, but I have confined this post to the ways in which the pursuit of photography has supported and sustained me through the last few turbulent months. One of the strengths of photography as a hobby is that it can be as simple or as complex as we wish it to be; it can remain at the level of simple enjoyment and pleasure or it can open doors that lead in all directions and bring us on a new journey of discovery. Photography has opened my eyes to the beauty of the world in a new way and that is something I treasure. I love this quote from Kurt Vonnegut, applying it to photography, as I truly do believe that photography makes the soul grow. "To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." -- Kurt Vonnegut

Would you like to try photography as a hobby but baulk at the idea of spending so much money on ‘gear’? Have you started with a kit lens but would like to spread your wings? Do you look at the price of camera lenses and decide to stick with your phone camera? These are some of the questions I asked myself, and obstacles I encountered, when starting photography. It can be an expensive hobby, with even ‘ordinary’ lenses costing hundreds of euro. For anyone starting out in photography it’s a big commitment. What if you don’t make it as a photographer? What if you don’t enjoy it, having spent all that money? I did a lot of research into cameras before making a decision on my first camera when starting back to photography after a break of many years. Previously I owned an SLR camera (pre-digital) so I wanted a DSLR, an interchangeable lens camera that would give me that ‘real camera’ feel. In the end I opted for a Nikon D3400. It doesn’t have cutting edge features or technology so if that’s what you want this is not the camera for you. If you want a camera that is relatively light, has a good battery life, is fairly comfortable to hold and produces good quality images for a relatively low cost, then this camera is worth checking out. The D3400 has recently been replaced by Nikon D3500, which has more shots per battery charge than the D3400, and this has resulted in even better offers on the D3400. I wrote an earlier blog to describe my decision-making process. Check it out here What lenses do I need? While camera bodies, particularly entry level, can be obtained relatively cheaply, it is the lenses which can quickly rack up the cost. Most cameras come bundled with a kit lens. My Nikon came with 18-55 mm lens. Kit lenses are designed to give you some versatility and, since they don’t add a huge cost to the price of the camera, they let you get a feel for what the camera can do. Many people continue to use their kit lens for a long time, but I found that it tends to be a “jack of all trades, master of none” type lens and I found that I outgrew it quickly and wanted to discover what other lenses could do. Firstly, I must point out that where lenses are concerned, I am not an expert and have just mentioned the lenses that I find useful. There are many sites that provide expert reviews of lenses, and user reviews are often helpful. The second point I will make is that it does depend on what you like to photograph. Landscape lenses will differ from lenses for close-up work; certain other lenses might be considered best for street photography. Even when shooting the same subject, different lenses will give different results. For example, a wide-angle lens has a shorter focal length and will give a wider field of view whereas a telephoto lens has a longer focal length and will offer a narrower field of view. This variation in lenses is one of the welcome advancements in the newer smartphone cameras and is a setup I would like to replicate in my camera lens selection. The iPhone 11 Pro now offers ultra wide angle, wide angle and telephoto lenses. It's hard to match these exactly with a camera. There are hundreds of lenses on the market catering for the differing needs of photographers. Some of these lenses are expensive and are not necessary to have as beginners. I imagine that if you were to ask one hundred photography enthusiasts to pick their three favourite lenses you would get one hundred different answers. I have ended up with three lenses which I find are sufficient for my needs now. All three are inexpensive lenses but produce good quality images and are good beginner lenses. I hear it said repeatedly that expensive gear will not make a great photographer, so until I improve my photography skills, I will content myself with my current lens range. My Nikon lenses Sigma 17-50 mm The focal length of this lens might not seem all that different to the kit lens but there is a world of difference in the image quality. This is what I consider to be a versatile, ‘walkabout’ lens. It is a solid, well-built lens that won’t break the bank. It is good for landscape photography and, in my opinion, is a good replacement for the kit lens. Image quality is great and, although it is slightly heavier than I thought it would be, it is extremely comfortable to hold. It feels like a ‘real’ lens. This lens is fully compatible with my Nikon D3400. I used this lens on a recent trip to the coast It is quite a versatile lens Nikon 70-300 mm telephoto lens This is a reasonably priced zoom lens which allows you to capture distant subjects and scenes. Image quality is not bad considering its price, it is lightweight and easy to handle and I have found myself using it on many occasions, particularly when conditions don’t allow me to zoom with my feet.  Image quality does deteriorate the further you zoom, but this is the case with most inexpensive zoom lenses and is something I can live with. The zoom lens is useful when we can't get close to our subject Nikon 50 mm prime lens This lens has a fixed focal length (no zoom). With an aperture of f1.8 or f2 it is good for portraits as it allows you to produce a nice blurry background or ‘bokeh’. (I wrote a beginner blog on using aperture priority mode to produce bokeh. Check it out here ) This lens is lightweight and produces a sharp image. Because the lens does not zoom you must move closer to your subject, or zoom with your feet, which can actually be an advantage when learning photography. The 50 mm prime lens is often considered to be the one lens that every photographer should own. (It is said that Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the greatest street photographers of all time, frequently used the 50 mm as his lens of choice). It is not expensive and because it is so popular it can be picked up second hand relatively easily. If I’m honest, this is the lens that stays on my Nikon camera and gets the most use for everyday photography. The 50 mm lens allows you to get close to your subject and achieve a blurry background. I bought some close-up filters for this lens, which allowed me to experiment with close up photography without the expense of a macro lens My second camera choice While the Nikon is itself a lightweight camera, its range of lenses do add weight, yet they are necessary in order to have the right lens for the right shot. I began to realise that I would like a camera that could be slipped into a bag for ease of use when travelling.  Again, I did a lot of research before buying this camera. https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/the-dilemma-of-choosing-a-travel-camera-top-things-to-consider-and-how-i-made-my-decision I was taking a trip to Italy and wanted something lightweight, but which could take good pictures, particularly in low light. I looked at a range of ‘point and shoot’ options but to get the features that I wanted, such as viewfinder and good image quality, I had to look at the upper end of the market and realised that most of these cameras would soon be surpassed by advancements in smartphone cameras. I reckoned that going for a mirrorless camera might be a better option if I wanted to ‘future proof’ my camera kit, since these cameras can take a range of lenses. My final choice was the Olympus E-M10 Mark 11. Being a mirrorless camera, both the camera and lenses are lighter than the DSLR. This camera has a few other advantages over the Nikon such as a touchscreen and image stabilization, which reduces blurring due to camera shake. On the downside, though, it only captures 320 shots before the battery runs out, compared to 1200 shots from the Nikon, so carrying a replacement battery is highly recommended. The camera has a sort of retro look, which I like. Check it out here My Olympus lenses I bought my Olympus camera on a deal including two kit lenses, which received good user reviews. These are a 40-150 mm zoom and a 14-42 mm, both of which I enjoy using and which have delivered some good quality images. I am happy to continue using these lenses until I become more familiar with the camera. Below are some recent images from the camera. Olympus E-M10 Mark 11 40-150 mm lens I took this with the Olympus 14-42 mm kit lens. A few minutes later the cloud had dispersed and the mountain was clear again. Irish weather! Conclusion Photography can be an expensive hobby, but it doesn't have to be. An entry level DSLR, or even a decent mirrorless camera, and kit lens costs much less than most mobile phones and allows for a lot more creative possibilities. When adding to your lens collection, check out second hand lenses in local or online camera shops. I bought my 50 mm lens from a reputable camera shop and it was almost new for nearly half the price. My Olympus camera was part of a deal in last year's summer sale, also from a reputable online camera dealer. In my opinion, photography is a wonderful hobby and you really can get started on a budget. Why not give it a go! For another opinion on the best beginner lenses check out: https://digital-photography-school.com/3-lenses-every-beginner-photographer-needs-video/

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone starting out in blogging makes mistakes. We are not perfect. Mistakes are not the end of the world (or the end of a blog!). I made a big mistake when I started blogging, a mistake I didn’t even know I was making. Now I have started to rectify my mistake. Here’s how I’m doing it. The beginning I started blogging some years ago in connection with my work, but that was mainly an opinion blog based on topics I was familiar with or about which I had some knowledge or expertise. I enjoyed creating content for the blog and wanted to expand into creating my own blog based on my experiences of returning to photography after many years, essentially the experience of becoming a beginner all over again. I chose the topic because I felt I wouldn’t have to be knowledgeable – I could share my learning journey – yet it was something I felt passionate about and which I felt would lend itself to lots of different blog topics. My biggest mistake was that I didn’t really know anything about creating blog content. I knew nothing about attracting readership or getting found on Google. I knew very little about the wider blogging community and most of all I didn’t realise that if I was putting a blog online I had to create content for others, not just for myself, otherwise I might just as well keep a diary! The blog post below was important to me. It allowed me to articulate my vision for photography. But it didn't attract any readers and I didn't know what i was doing wrong. I now realise that I have some work to do to create content that others will want to read rather than create personal ramblings that mean nothing to anyone other than myself! https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/improving-our-photography How did not knowing about blogging affect me enough to want to change? Well, two things happened. First, after some time I became aware that the number of people reading my blog was disappointingly low, and second, I realised that this would not change just by lamenting the fact that I had no readers - I would have to do something. I began to do some research into blogging and into how some blogs are so successful, and this is what helped me to realise what I had missed in the beginning; that as well as writing in my niche I had to be aware of blog writing itself and of what I needed to do to properly call myself a blogger. Actions I took Step 1 The first step was to look at other blogs and learn from them. I realised that interesting titles aroused my curiosity and encouraged me to read on, and when I looked at my own titles, they were often bland and uninteresting and wouldn’t entice anyone to read any further. Some work on titles was necessary! I read some blogs on topics that appealed to me and came to realise which blogging styles I liked. Through looking at other blogs I was led into a Facebook blogging community. This brought me into contact with other bloggers and I discovered what other bloggers were writing about, how they were writing and what I could learn from them. I even began to comment on others’ blogs and to receive occasional comments on mine. Step 2 Although I was beginning to be more involved in the blogging community, I still didn’t know much about blogging. I knew very little about all that is involved in content creation, even less about search engine optimisation (SEO), and I wasn’t attracting any more readers. I had a subscription to DIgital Photography School because of its excellent photography tips and when I noticed its ‘sister site’, https://problogger.com/, I was ready to take a look and there I found the 7 Day Content Sprint for bloggers, which gave me the impetus I needed to breathe some new energy into my blog. One major benefit for me in taking the content sprint was that I began to understand about readership. Darren Rowse, experienced blogger and founder of Problogger, continually emphasises this aspect of blogging: that we need to understand our readers, know what our readers want and need and be of service to those readers. The content we share ought to be useful to people in some way, otherwise there is no point in sharing it! This brought me full circle and I had to ask myself the question – am I blogging just for myself or do I want to offer something useful to those who might read my blog? By answering yes to this question, I began to see blogging in a new light and started to work on how I could be useful to my readers. I considered all the different types of content which I could produce so that my output doesn’t become stuck in the same groove, even though I don't plan on changing my niche. I looked at improving my titles, at producing interesting first lines to draw in the reader and at trying to think of topics that might answer a need. I will only know the success of my new approach when I see if my readership improves. More to learn In a recent rewrite of a keynote address given at Social Media Marketing World, Darren Rowse names as his priorities in 9 Ways to Grow Your Blog Faster: 1. Engage with your audience and find out what they need 2. Create content that can transform your readers’ lives These may seem to be lofty ambitions for my humble blog, but they are hammered out on the anvil of experience as Darren hosts one of the world’s most influential blog sites. In fact, Darren’s nine points on growing your blog are all variations on the same theme – how can my blog serve others in some way? I have just bought an iPhone 11 Pro, mainly for its camera. So far my photographs have not matched the standard of those shared online so I will need to do some investigating to get the best images possible. Sharing my discoveries will be of benefit to those who read my blog as well as to myself. I recently participated in a second content sprint on http://problogger.com/. As a result I have now planned 6 new pieces of content with many more ideas generated for further posts. I have created an avatar based on a beginner in my niche and will create content accordingly. I have also checked out the website https://smartblogger.com/, which, with over 4 million readers, considers itself to be one of the world’s biggest websites about blogging. From this site I have received some ‘cutting edge advice about blogging’, to quote the site itself. Most importantly, all of this is helping me to think of content creation in a new way. I am continuing to learn and to improve my content and I want to keep growing my blog in ways that might someday reach that lofty height – that of transforming someone’s life in some way. Great content leaves a mark on people – it moves them from one place to another. - Darren Rowse, Problogger Conclusion All of us who are posting our blogs online want to write blogs that our readers will love, and hopefully share. We all need a bit of help from time to time, particularly from those who are expert in the field. If you are interested in giving your blog an injection of energy, or just want to learn more about blogging and you are interested in joining one of the Problogger Content Sprints, check them out here: https://problogger.com/contentsprint/

Have you ever felt as though you’ve lost your ‘mojo’; that you want to write something, but you just can’t get into the flow? You sit in front of your laptop, determined to get your next blogpost written, and the ideas just won’t come. Worse still, you manage to find a hundred and one things you need to do to avoid even sitting at your laptop. Does this sound familiar? Most writers suffer from writer’s block at one time or another. You know you want to write, but you don’t know what to write about and even if you do have an idea you don’t know where to start or how to order your thoughts. Even the most prolific writers can experience this state, which can be frustrating and lead to feelings of disillusionment. (Well-known singer Adele famously admitted to struggling with writer’s block while attempting to create a follow up to her acclaimed debut album ‘19’, which thankfully she overcame). Writer’s block can occur for many different reasons. Possibly one of the most common reasons for bloggers to experience writer’s block is not having enough fresh ideas to write about but it could also be caused by lack of motivation, by having other distractions or worries in our lives which block our creativity or it can even be caused by our own perfectionism, when we feel that nothing we write is quite good enough. At one point during the recent pandemic lockdown I was struggling to come up with content for my blog. My original intent for my blog was to share my journey as I negotiated the ups and downs of developing my passion for photography, and each new learning necessitated going out ‘into the field’, practising what I had learned and evaluating the results for myself before sharing what I had discovered. Being in almost total lockdown meant that I could no longer go out and about with my camera and the photographic opportunities provided by my garden soon became exhausted. I felt that I had written about every photography related topic and had nothing more to say in the absence of practical application of what I was doing. There was no point in discussing landscape photography techniques when there were no opportunities to capture and critique landscape images. I had intended to do some experimentation in street photography but that was not an option in empty streets, which were ‘out of bounds’ anyway. As for travel photography, even travel in my own country was prohibited and there were no opportunities there for trying anything new. As we emerge from lockdown, I hope to practise some of the landscape techniques I have been learning  and improve my landscape photography I look forward to getting back into busy streets to capture those candid moments Travelling around the countryside to capture some images almost became a distant memory, but while I wait to start travelling again I have dug out some images of one of my favourite subjects – boats! 5 ways to overcome writer's block that have worked for me I have a subscription to problogger.com and unexpectedly, just when I was wondering where to go next with my blog, an email from Problogger invited me to participate in a free 7-day blogging sprint. This was the motivation I needed to look anew at my blogging content and try to take it in a slightly different direction.  The advice given in these sessions has changed my thinking about the content I write and has broadened my view on the whole area of content creation. Instead of simply sharing what I am learning I have begun to look at how I can boost my creativity in general and this is helping me to overcome the barriers to creativity thrown up by an unexpected forced lockdown. While my writer’s block was brought on by unprecedented circumstances the solution is common to all circumstances when writer’s block occurs. Below are my five proven ways to overcome writer’s block and keep that content coming! 1. Diversify One of the most useful pieces of advice which I have gained is that in times of confusion, when what was normal is no longer possible, the best option is to try to diversify. And with my efforts to diversify content in the face of a lack of ideas I found that I began to breathe new life into my blog and became motivated to write more often. I found that I didn’t have to do a complete overhaul of my blog, but I just needed to take a slightly different approach to content creation. Experimenting with content helped me to discover new ways of presenting that content so that it might be more appealing to an audience. By writing different types of content I began to make more use of links as well as referring to prior posts that I had written and looking at the work of other bloggers. I read articles on blogging and came to understand some of the associated jargon. For example, one topic which I found to be of interest was about the desirability of creating evergreen content. Some of the new content that I was creating was written in response to the crisis which the world was experiencing, and how it can affect our creativity. While it could also have a more general appeal in that there are often similar situations which affect our productivity and creativity, it may also be the case that in a year or so from now no-one will want to hear the words pandemic or coronavirus or any of the other terms immortalised during this time, so whether content written during this time will be truly evergreen may be debatable. With that in mind I am trying to create content that will remain relevant for some time to come while still relating to the very real issues which Covid has thrown up. 2. Brainstorm ideas This might seem to be a ridiculous notion. If we can’t even think of one idea to write about, how will we think of lots of ideas? Yet I have found that it's not as ridiculous as it sounds. Often the problem is that we are obsessing on one idea and the content is not flowing. That’s ok, maybe it’s not the idea we need to write about. If we have brainstormed, we can go to our list and consider another topic. As a result of doing the Problogger 7-day blogging sprint I took on the challenge of doing a brainstorm of blog post ideas and before I knew it, I was again finding that ideas were coming thick and fast. I now have lots of ideas that may or may not materialise into blog posts but at least they are there to be developed if I need them. Most of the time ideas for my list come to me at unusual times; in the shower, when working in the garden, when out walking, even when I’m cleaning! Often, the only times the ideas don’t flow is when I am sitting at my computer! To capture the ideas that come to me on random occasions I try to jot them down as soon as I can, either in a notebook or on my phone, so that I can retrieve them when I’m ready to write.  Some ideas on my list may never get to become blog post topics, but I hope that many will. 3. Make a commitment The purpose of a blog is to provide something useful to our audience. And if we go to the effort of sharing our ideas in a blog, we would like that blog to be successful. Most blogs are successful because bloggers build a relationship with their audience. This is done by writing consistently, not just producing occasional blogs when we feel like it. I have found that one of the ways to ensure against writer’s block is to make a commitment to myself that as soon as I finish one blog, I will start working on the next, or even have a few running concurrently. I do find that the more I share, the more ideas I have. Even in the middle of one post my mind seems to generate more ideas which in turn I want to share, so often it is then that the idea for my next post is born. For example, the idea for this post came while writing the last one. 4. Just write Maybe it’s the title you are stuck at, or maybe it’s getting an effective opening line. The trick is to not dwell there if the right idea does not come easily, but to work on another part of the post. Sometimes I just write anything that comes to mind then re-read and scrap a lot of it, but at least it gets me started! If I can get going on the body of the post, even to write an outline of what I want to say, it can get me past the block. Rather than obsessing about getting a great headline I can settle for a working headline and just move on, although I do try to at least have a working title to keep me on track and stop my thoughts wandering all over the place. If I really can’t get down to working on my blog post I try reading an online article and making some notes. These notes may or may not be useful to my blog, but at least it gets me writing something, and something is better than nothing! The adage ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ comes to mind here! 5. Plan to succeed If I am tired after a hard day it won’t be surprising to sit in front of my laptop and find that no ideas will come, or that they won’t come in the way I want them to. If, on the other hand, I plan to write when I am fresh and my mind is free of other distractions, I will be setting myself up for success rather than failure. Everyone is different, some of us write best first thing in the morning, some like to settle down mid-morning with a cup of coffee, for others the best time is evening. I know some writers who can’t write a word until the house is quiet at night. I can’t write if I have something else on my mind, or if I’m experiencing anxiety or tension, so I must deal with that in whatever way I can rather than bring it into my writing space.  Whatever time is right for us, physically or emotionally, if we plan our writing for that time instead of forcing ourselves to write at a time that doesn’t work for us, we’ll be planning to succeed. Learning from the pros I came into the blogging world less than two years ago and quickly realised that I had a steep learning curve in front of me. I didn't know very much about SEO or how to grow an audience, and I didn’t really know how to write as a blogger. For this reason, hitting a wall in terms of my content creation was a blessing in disguise as it has helped me delve more deeply into the blogging world. Apart from listening to countless Problogger podcasts by a prolific creator like Darren Rowse, I have also been reading blogs by other experienced bloggers and these have given me a greater insight into this world. One such blogger is Seth Godin, the man behind one of the most popular blogs in the world. He doesn’t write long blogs, he doesn’t use images, he doesn’t link to other blogs. So, what is his secret? He blogs often, his blogs are short and snappy, and they take a unique view of the word. His words in a recent blog have given me heart to know that, even if I don’t have a huge audience, even if at times I struggle with knowing what to write about, even if I get disillusioned and want to quit, what I write is valuable to me, it is something I want to share, and for that reason it’s worthwhile. Your contribution isn’t noise. Not for the right people, at the right time. The internet isn’t a mass medium. The voices online are not for everyone, it’s not the Super Bowl or M*A*S*H or even the nightly news. Nobody reaches much more than 1% of the audience on any given day. But… That tiny slice that does want to hear from you, that needs to hear from you, that would miss you if you don’t speak up–for that audience, you’re not noise. You’re essential. Seth Godin (Seth’s Blog, June 23, 2020) https://seths.blog/ When perfectionism kicks in, when I feel pressure to write in a certain way to attract more readers instead of just writing for myself, I will re-read these lines and hopefully overcome any temporary writer’s block I might be experiencing. Sometimes just managing to capture a beautiful sunset with my phone camera is enough to bring back the motivation to make better photos and to share that process I hope you have found some of the ideas in this post to be useful. If you have, or if you know someone who would benefit from the Problogger Facebook training session mentioned in my last post, please share them. https://www.facebook.com/32562664944/videos/261729938249861/

I wrote this post, Putting the smartphone camera through its paces. Can it rival a dedicated camera? a year ago and since then I have come to appreciate my smartphone as a real alternative to using a dedicated camera, rather than seeing it as a poor substitute. This is not primarily due to the convenience of having the phone camera with me at all times, although this is a bonus, rather it is because of all the opportunities it provides to practise my photography skills. As a learner in photography my primary aim has not been to learn about the camera but to learn about the art of photography. I am interested in creative composition, in storytelling through images, in looking for interesting subjects, in experimenting with different techniques, and the phone camera provides a tool to do this just as the dedicated camera does. It does help that the camera technology is improving dramatically with every new phone and the image quality of the latest phones can rival, if not surpass, most of the entry level DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. I have recently been in the market for a new phone and my priority has been to review the camera on each of the current phones as I wanted to get the best possible camera available at the moment within my price range. For many years I have been a dedicated android user. I like the phones and the cameras have been decent. However, this time I couldn't get away from the fact that the iPhone 11 Pro seemed to top all the review lists for the consistency of its images, so I have made the move to Apple. One over-riding factor in my decision was the fact that there are numerous iPhone photography courses online, which I intend to avail of in the coming weeks and months. I am particularly drawn to seeing what I can learn about iPhone landscape photography, and in particular how to use the wide angle lens that my phone now has. In addition, I really like the teaching of Clifford Pickett, who has provided some free previews of his iPhone Landscape Mastery course. Preview YouTube video How To Shoot More Dramatic Landscape Photos - iPhone Landscape Mastery How To Shoot More Dramatic Landscape Photos - iPhone Landscape Mast Recently I was driving in the countryside at sundown when the sky in front of me lit up in the most beautiful colours. I had to stop and admire the beauty. The capture of this image was made possible by having a phone camera at hand Below is my original post discussing the merits of a smartphone camera compared to a DSLR or mirrorless camera. All photographs were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S9+. *** One of the best aspects of photography is capturing interesting and unique images while away from home, whether these are candid photographs of people which give a glimpse of a different culture or unusual views of landmarks and scenery. It is essential to have the best tool for the job that we can have, yet carrying a bulky DSLR camera around at all times can spoil the enjoyment of a relaxing trip, not to mention contribute to back strain! So, we use the camera that is always at our disposal – the smartphone camera. But is it up to the task? Or will we end up with images that are not quite satisfying because we couldn’t see what we were doing in bright sunlight or because we zoomed too far to get that closer view and ended up with a grainy image? It is true that smartphone cameras are becoming more and more sophisticated all the time, and with every new phone launch there is greater and greater emphasis on the camera part of the phone. All of the high end models take good, sharp images that rival those of many dedicated cameras. They have all but replaced the lower end point and shoot camera, with an added bonus being that they are always with us, ready to snap that unexpected moment. Undoubtedly, they are the camera of choice for many people as they are the ultimate in convenience, but the danger is that we will end up just taking snapshots, allowing the camera software to make all the choices, or, if we are more serious about photography, we will bemoan the fact that we missed a super photo opportunity by ‘just’ having our phone camera with us. However, with a little bit of creative thinking smartphone cameras can in fact become an effective tool for the serious photographer. A lot of my smartphone images are snapshots to create memories of places that I have visited Making the most of the camera that is always with us. Unless I am unique in this area, which I very much doubt, there are many out there who, like me, are not making the most of their phone cameras. I am not even talking about adding extra filters or lenses because, while there are undoubtedly options to add filters and lenses to phone cameras, they are first and foremost phones and most people don’t tend to carry extra paraphernalia with them on a daily basis. Indeed, most camera phones are really kept on auto mode to capture those unexpected moments, and that’s really where their strength lies. That is not to say, however, that there is not a lot we can do with our phone cameras other than taking snaps on auto mode. In fact, most of us only realise a fraction of the potential offered by our phone cameras. I have been doing some research into the technology behind the latest phone cameras (although it is hard to stay bang up to date, things change so quickly in this world!), and in this blog I will share some of the tips and tricks I have discovered that will make phone photography more creative and interesting and that will allow those of us who are serious about photography to feel that we have a good alternative to our dedicated camera always on hand, rather than just seeing it as a poor substitute simply used to grab an image when we have no other camera available. Composition One of the main ways in which we can become more creative with our phone cameras is in paying attention to composition. Whether we take our photos with a camera or smartphone, there are well composed photographs and badly composed photographs. By paying attention to some of the ‘rules’ of composition, such as using rule of thirds, leading lines or natural framing, by looking for symmetry or reflections and by ensuring we have a clear subject, we can immediately produce images that are more pleasing to the eye, and this can be done regardless of the camera we use. Leading lines Leading lines is a familiar photography technique which can be used on a phone camera just as easily as on a dedicated camera. Keeping this technique in mind can help us make the most of these opportunities when they present themselves. I also love images that show reflections. Natural framing Again, natural framing is a technique that is easy to use with a smartphone camera and is all about being aware of the surroundings, perhaps moving position to ‘frame’ the image in a certain way. Rule of thirds This photography ‘rule’ suggests that images can be more pleasing to the eye if the subject is not dead centre but is rather placed at intersecting lines of a nine square grid. Often, when there are two subjects, placing them diagonally can be a pleasing composition. Sometimes being in the centre of the image is just the right place for the subject! Unfortunately the signpost is an unwanted element but this can be removed in Photoshop. Clear subject Landscapes can be beautiful to the eye but often don’t make good photographs. The addition of a subject such as this man looking out to sea adds a bit of interest to the image. Getting down low and shooting or 'shooting through' something can give a different perspective to our image, or we can shoot high and portray a subject in a way that it is not normally seen. This image was taken through a second floor window and gives a clear image of the interesting rooftops nearby. Using our smartphone and taking advantage of a photo opportunity can result in an image that may have otherwise been lost, but it pays to add a bit of creativity rather than just ‘snapping’ aimlessly. I was passing this lake on a foggy morning in April. I took some photos with my phone camera as well as my DSLR. The phone camera produced some decent images which captured the atmosphere. Some photographers suggest that shooting odd numbers can add more interest to an image than having an even number of subjects in an image. I like to shoot in threes and it is often possible to come across three objects unexpectedly. While being able to adjust depth of field is a significant advantage of dedicated cameras, it is possible to do this to some extent on the phone camera using portrait (iPhone) or live focus (Android) mode and we can blur backgrounds to produce a more ‘professional’ looking photograph. These images were taken with regular photo mode and live focus mode. The live focus mode does give some background blur. One technique I particularly like in the phone camera is burst mode, where we can take a quick burst to (hopefully) capture the action in a shot. I need to practice this technique some more as my image is not clear, but it is worth working on the technique. One of the things I have learned is that the quality of an image is significantly reduced when we use digital zoom on our phone cameras, so for this reason I have begun to make more use of the telephoto lens, and I find that this gives a good close up view of my subject in many cases. Maybe one of the most important advantages of learning to become more competent with our smartphones is that we can begin to pay attention to photo opportunities all around us, and in so doing develop our photographer’s eye, knowing that we can take an acceptable image with the phone in our pocket if the opportunity arises. Our images are instantly available to view and can even be enhanced using mobile photo editing apps. One of my favourites is Snapseed, which can be used to make subtle improvements to my images, particularly to colour which can at times look a little artificial straight out of camera. Photo editing can give us some creative control by fine-tuning our images to our own preferences or by using filters to experiment with different effects. The following images are examples of before and after Snapseed editing: So, what’s the verdict? My question at the start of this blog was whether the smartphone camera can rival the dedicated camera for our everyday photography needs. Obviously, because of its small sensor the phone camera won’t deliver the same high quality images as a DSLR with a much larger sensor. However, I found the image quality to be very acceptable although the colours were more artificial than those produced by my camera. A few sliders in Snapseed helped to give more realistic colours. One drawback was shooting in sunshine, where the lack of a viewfinder was a real disadvantage. I found the inability to see the screen in the glare of the sun to be very frustrating, although shooting in full sunshine is not optimal for photography in any case. Prior to taking part in what I call my ‘smartphone project’ my attitude towards my phone camera was rather dismissive and I often missed what could have been a good photo opportunity because of assuming that my phone would capture an inferior image. By changing my attitude I have opened myself up to new opportunities. I found that I did have some degree of creative control while using my phone camera and that it was possible to overcome the difficulties and use my phone camera as another photography learning tool. For my purposes the smartphone camera works. I won’t get professional standard photographs from either phone or real camera as I am not a professional photographer. What I do get is learning opportunities, a chance to experiment with composition, with framing a scene or subject properly to get the best result and a chance to improve my photography skills on a daily basis, which is my overall aim. My advice to anyone learning photography is not to rely exclusively on the smartphone camera but not to dismiss it either. Someday it might capture that image which will make you very proud! “What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.” — Karl Lagerfeld (German creative director and photographer) I have never regretted taking a photograph, but I have regretted the ones I didn’t take. And the only moment we have in which to take that photograph is the one right now. Update July 2020 My new phone has a wide angle lens which I am looking forward to exploring. With the latest technology I now have a camera with three lens which can easily slip into a pocket or bag. This does indeed add to the attractiveness of a smartphone camera for everyday photography. Further reading Thanks to the amazing improvements in phone camera technology in recent years, most of us now have a camera to hand that is capable of capturing incredible images. This Ultimate Guide to Smartphone Photography (link below) contains tips for getting the most out of your phone camera, in particular it will guide you through some of the best ways to capture great business photos from your smartphone. https://www.smartphotoeditors.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-smartphone-photography/

What is a successful blog? Success in blogging terms means different things to different people, depending on why you are blogging. For instance, a business blog will have a different purpose than a personal blog; a blogger whose blog is providing an income stream will judge success in different terms than someone whose main purpose for their blog is personal development. In my case, I blog to chart the development of my photography journey and to help anyone else who is learning or improving their photography. I also want to share some of the additional benefits I have gained since re-starting this wonderful journey and maybe even inspire someone else to take an interest in photography. Success to me is in terms of readership as it is disheartening to talk to myself all the time. I would like to be useful to those who read my blog, so rather than seeing success in terms of hundreds of views (not very likely!) I would like to know that those who visit my site like what they see and would be willing to come back or to share a post with someone else who might be interested. While I don’t want to sell anything, promote anything or make money from my blog, I do want to continually produce the best content that I can, content that is useful to my readers, so for that reason I am always trying to improve the success of my blog. Photography is my passion. By writing about my journey as a learner in photography I hope I can be of help to others undertaking a similar journey. This is the aim of my blog A recent article called ‘New Blogging Statistics: Blogging still works, especially for the 10% of bloggers who do things very differently…’ caught my eye. It was published on https://www.orbitmedia.com and gave details of the 7th Annual Blogging Survey carried out by the group. The author, Andy Crestodina, explains that each year they survey 1000+ bloggers as well as some content marketing experts and ‘look for correlations between the data and results.’ While they accept that, given the wide range of goals among bloggers, it is not feasible to ask bloggers to report on specific results, they are able to determine what ‘successful’ bloggers do, regardless of how they view success. The survey reveals some interesting facts: There are around 31 million bloggers online Bloggers who report most success: (a) Spend 6+ hours writing each article (b) Add video to their content (c) Publish multiple times per week Mixed media posts consistently outperform words-only posts ‘How-to’ articles are by far the most popular blog format Conducting original research is an emerging trend for bloggers Most bloggers post consistently, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. High frequency bloggers get best results Source The article goes on to consider the popularity of 12 blogging tactics and the link between these tactics and successful blogs. Some bloggers equate success with monetization or returns in terms of business contacts but since this does not apply to me, I picked out 3 of the tactics which I feel are most relevant to my blog at this time and which I hope would lead to what I see as success – an increase in readership, a greater number of return visitors and more post shares. #1 The link between headlines and successful blogs “Headlines have a huge impact on the success of a piece of content…bloggers who write more draft headlines get better results” When we think of how we, as consumers of content, treat headlines, we will realise that for most of us the approach is to quickly scan headlines that we see online, stopping at the ones that take our interest or have something to offer us. If we do this, then our readers do it too, so our headlines must be attention grabbers, they have to offer potential readers something that they want. I must admit that when I published my first blogs, I paid little attention to headlines, and that could be the reason why those early posts had very few readers. Now that I have come to see why headlines are so important, I try to put more effort into crafting my headlines, often writing several draft headlines before I settle on one. Research quoted by orbitmedia.com suggests that bloggers who write lots of headlines before choosing one are the bloggers most likely to report success. I have done some research into what makes a successful headline and try to stick to these formats as much as possible. I try to put myself into the shoes of a potential reader coming across my blog and wondering, ‘will this be useful to me?’ If the answer is not in the headline the reader will move on. The headline must promise something to the reader and the body of the content has to deliver on that promise. One interesting point made by Andy Crestodina in his article is that the average person sees 1,300+ headlines each day and dismisses 99.7% of them. That’s a lot of dismissals, so if we don’t want our posts to be dismissed out of hand, we must pay attention to our headlines. I recently published a number of blogs based on smartphone photography which proved successful in terms of readership. For each of these blogs I wrote several draft headlines before deciding on the final one. #2 The link between adding images and successful blogs “Bloggers who add more visuals get better results” Bloggers who include 10+ images per post have a more than 56% chance of increasing the likelihood of reporting ‘strong results’, says Andy Crestodina. “Just 3 percent add 10+ images to a typical post. But those are exactly the bloggers most likely to report success.” Since my blog is essentially a showcase for my own photography, I do always include images as part of my blog, but I was previously unaware that the number of images per post was significant. I rarely include more than 10 images, but this is an area in which I can improve. I do try to match images with the content of a paragraph rather than include random images. In articles about aspects of photography this is relatively easy to do, but in articles such as this one my images do not fit neatly alongside this type of content. As reported at the beginning of this article, the survey found that among those who reported most success with their blog were those who added video to their content. I have not previously added video content but it is worth considering using this medium occasionally. Below is a quick video roundup of a few of my images from summer 2020: #3 The link between updating old posts and successful blogs “Bloggers who update old posts are 2x more likely to get results” In his article Andy Crestodina reports that, ‘Bloggers who go back and update old content are more than twice as likely to report “strong results.”’ He quotes the statistic that in 2017, 53% of bloggers said they were updating old content while in 2020 this had risen to 70%. In an article based on the topic of updating old blog posts, cleverly entitled, ‘How to teach your old blog new tricks,’ Crestodina even goes so far as to say that, “Updating old blog posts has been one of the most effective SEO strategies we’ve found.” While this is more likely to be of value to those with many posts, particularly those whose blogs are for promotional or marketing purposes who don’t want outdated information on their site, it is still a worthwhile habit to get into for every blogger. All of us will have posts in our archives that are a bit dated or, alternatively, have information that might be useful to today’s readers that can be pulled to the front of our blog. In addition, you don’t want visitors’ first impression of your blog to be a post with outdated information or links. Updating old posts is not something I have yet begun to do on a regular basis, but based on Crestodina’s guide there are two options that I might consider for updating an old blog. The easiest way is to do a quick edit, which would involve updating the title and a few paragraphs, adding updated content or removing any content that is out of date or no longer relevant. In my blog I might also update some images and refer to what I have learned since writing the post. The other option is to rewrite the entire post, updating the title and adding new information, new knowledge and new images. In this option there may be some parts of the original post that I wish to retain but these would be expanded upon with new ideas or even new research findings. In both options I would also check links, fix any broken links and remove those that are no longer relevant, replacing them with links to current sources or to one of my own blog posts. Which posts should we update? When I look at my archives, I notice a few types of post that might be worth updating. Some of these are posts that were written when I was learning certain skills and could be renewed with information about what I have learned since then. The other type of blog that can be updated is a post that was popular with my readers at the time that can now be brought to a whole new audience. I have some favourite posts that will be first on my list to renew and update as I will enjoy doing so, maybe adding extra material, finding new links, adding new quotes, maybe adding changed opinions and generally improving the layout of the post to make it more attractive to the reader. Since my ‘bank’ of posts has increased I can now create topic clusters from my own posts, making links to topics that relate to each other or build off each other. As well as helping give my blog a facelift, this is also an enjoyable activity as it helps me see my posts as a whole rather than as individual pieces, and it helps me become more invested in the content that I am creating. As well as doing post updates, you might find that there are posts that no longer reflect who you are, so you might consider deleting these posts. Before deleting you might ask yourself: a. Is the post useful to my readers? b. Is it good for me to have on my site, i.e. does it reflect my current thinking? c. Is it well written and does it have a point to it? Often our earlier posts make us cringe. If so, it’s time to do something about it. d. Is it still relevant? Does any of the information need to be updated or deleted? Or is the entire post past its ‘sell by’ date? Often our original posts may be very different to those we write today so it is a good idea to do an assessment and either give them a face-lift so that our entire body of work will look fresh and current or else decide that they are no longer fit for purpose and bid them a fond farewell. Either way, don’t neglect your old posts, they make up part of your blogging journey and were an important part of getting you to where you are today. I recently updated a post from last year. I changed the title, took out some content that I was no longer happy with and added some new content. I left most of the images, as they reflected where I was in my photography journey at that time, and added a few new ones https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/travel-photography-without-too-much-travel These are just 3 tactics that have been proven to improve the success of your blog. There are many other ways in which a successful blog can be achieved. You may have something that works well for your blog. If so, please share with others.

Is it sensitive to blog at the moment? Just what kind of content should we be creating right now? It's difficult to know how to approach blogging in these strange and unusual times. I find myself wanting to respond in some way to what is going on, to offer some help if I can, some positivity, yet at the same time I feel that the world probably has enough people doing just that, most of them more expert than I am. On the other hand, it seems rather vacuous to ignore the ongoing crisis and act as if everything is carrying on as normal, when it clearly is not. During this time I want to blog even more than usual. Blogging is thinking aloud and there is a lot to think about right now. Blogging helps me clarify my own thoughts and might in some way help others to do the same. I think as bloggers we can ask ourselves two questions – what does the world need right now and, perhaps more importantly, what does the world not need right now? In answer to the second question, I think we can answer fairly confidently that the world does not need more and unnecessary scaremongering, it does not need the constant and relentless spreading of fear, it does not need repetition of false or misleading information and it does not need any more ‘catastrophising’. So, what does the world need right now? Or rather, what do humans right around the world need from each other right now? We need mutual support, strong community, both actual and virtual; we need positivity, encouragement, co-operation, social interaction (even at a distance!); we need creative solutions for coping with difficult situations; we need hope, we need generosity and we need fun. And perhaps more important than any of these – we need to hear and tell the truth. One of the most uplifting aspects of this Covid-19 crisis has been the support coming from the blogging community in Ireland. I have been inspired by beautiful words, supportive messages, generosity, genuine caring and an outpouring of creativity and creative ideas. The one thing I can say with certainty is that we need each other at this time. We need each other’s words of inspiration and support because these could mean the difference between hope and despair for so many. It’s good to give at this time, to create, to share. So I say keep blogging, keep posting photographs of beautiful places and wonderful things, keep the positive messages circulating so that we can drown out the messages of fear and negativity. If only one person is helped by our words we will have played our small part in giving the world what it needs at this most difficult time. Why we need to keep following our passions Photography is my passion. Photography is what helps me to be more present in the world and it gives me a great amount of pleasure. With a camera in my hand, concentrating on finding the next interesting subject, the best angle from which to shoot, the best light, I can become totally absorbed and momentarily forget that the world is in turmoil. Granted, I do have to come back to reality, but even a small amount of time each day given over to doing something we love provides much needed respite from a diet of negative and frightening information. I wrote an article on this blog some weeks ago in which I described how, for me, photography is a gateway to mindfulness and a way to help keep my thoughts free from anxiety. The article was written before the world was plunged into this current crisis, but perhaps is even more relevant today. https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/photography-a-gateway-to-mindfulness Many people share their stories online in an effort to give encouragement and inspiration to others. Some share their meditation practices or their love of books. Others share their love of walking in nature. Still more share their passion for running and how that can help their mental health. There are numerous blogs and videos sharing recipe ideas, fashion tips, self-care techniques or demonstrating keep fit programmes. For some people, their passion is an outlet for creativity, for others it’s what gets them through the day; an oasis of calm in the midst life’s challenges. Whatever our passion, I believe we help each other when we share that passion and what it brings to our lives. Blogging, posting on Instagram, podcasting, tweets, whatever our chosen medium we can choose to be beacons of light in this dark space by sharing what we are most passionate about. To quote a much loved poet, the late Seamus Heaney: If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere.

Have you ever wished your smartphone photos looked as good as those amazing photos you see posted online? Have you ever wished you could give your images a bit of extra ‘punch’ but don’t want to spend a lot of time doing it? Have you ever wondered if there is a ‘quick fix’ for improving your photos without having to navigate the ins and outs of an image processing programme? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then you might be interested in learning about two easy steps that will give your photos that extra ‘pop’ without having to spend a lot of time or energy doing so. Unless you are really into photography you probably don’t want to bother with post-processing your photos, apart from maybe doing some ‘touch up’ work on your camera software. There are also those who feel that we should leave photos as they come out of camera; that post-processing is ‘cheating’. My view is that, since it is our cameras that initially process our photographs, adding a little bit of post-processing is simply putting some of our own creativity to our images. Phone cameras are becoming more sophisticated all the time, so much so that we are led to believe that if we get the next generation phone with its ‘best camera ever’ we will have nothing to do but point and shoot to capture amazing photos. This is true to some extent, if we know something about how to compose and how to use light to get the most pleasing images. And if we know these things, we will capture good images with almost every modern camera. The camera can do so much, but we can do more. We can improve the highlights and shadow areas of our images, enhance the colours, even improve the composition with some subtle tweaks. This gives us some creative control over our images as well as the satisfaction of seeing the improvements we can make, turning good shots into great ones. I think that the slight adjustment to the temperature in the second image gives it a warmer, more natural feel Try these 2 simple steps to better photographs Many of us are probably content with posting our images on social media straight out of camera, yet by using these 2 simple ways that can make your phone photos pop you will have better looking photos in seconds! Firstly you need to download an app called Snapseed. Snapseed is available for both iPhone and android, with slight variations depending on your phone. It is owned by Google and is considered to be one of the best photo editing apps around. It is also free and can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. When you open Snapseed and tap Open on the top left you will be taken to your photo collection. Choose the photo you want to work on, and it will open in the Snapseed app.  On the bottom of the screen you get three options Styles (or Looks), Tools and Export. Styles give us some pre-set options, which I normally don’t go for. The main tab is the Tools tab, which opens the main menu. There are a lot of options here for those who want to spend a bit of time experimenting with different looks. I wrote a previous post on using Snapseed for the first time https://www.wildwillowways.com/post/snapseed-a-quick-review in which I experimented with some styles. The Tune Image tool is really the basis of Snapseed photo editing and I use it when I want to make a number of enhancements to my images but in this post I am going to keep the process even simpler and concentrate on 2 simple tools that can make a big difference to your photos. 1. White balance The first edit I usually make is to fix the white balance. Cameras are known for not reading lighting correctly, so this is a quick way to fix the colour temperature and tint. There is a whole colour theory behind this concept but for now its ok to just concentrate on the results we get by adjusting white balance. You will find the white balance option on the top line in the Tools menu. After opening the option my initial move is to look at what the app has to offer by clicking on auto white balance (AW) on the bottom of the screen. The changes using automatic white balance are often subtle I let my eye decide whether this is more pleasing than the original. Sometimes this is all I need to do. If I’m not happy with the result that the auto white balance gives, I can manually adjust the value of the temperature and tint by scrolling vertically to bring up the two options and scrolling horizontally to make the adjustments. In my opinion the colour of the flower and the leaves is more vibrant with the white balance adjustment in image 2 In this image automatic white balance did not give the effect I wanted so I worked on the image using the white balance sliders. You can move the sliders until you get an effect you like With these two images I just used the automatic white balance and I like the result. I think the first image is cold while the white balance adjustment warms the second image slightly. Again, the change is subtle and can be enhanced further if required Some people prefer a cooler image; this is possible by choosing negative values. I usually prefer to warm an image slightly but the choice is yours 2. Crop The second edit that I believe can make a subtle but significant difference to our images is using the Crop tool. The question of whether to crop our photos is one that fuels debate among photographers. Some lament the inevitable loss of megapixels when we crop an image, others feel that we should compose our images correctly in the first place. The argument against cropping because of loss of megapixels is a valid one, particularly if we want to print in large sizes, but most people probably won’t be printing in large sizes so a small amount of cropping will not do too much harm. Obviously, it would be better to achieve the perfect composition when shooting but sometimes that doesn’t happen, and we end up with our subject in the wrong position or with an unwanted distraction in our finished shot. In these cases, cropping the image can make the difference between getting an image that is worthwhile or discarding the image as useless. One of the most well-known composition techniques in photography is the rule of thirds. Put simply, this means placing our subject off centre, although more accurately the rule of thirds suggests that if we divide our frame with two vertical and two horizontal lines and we place our subject or subjects at or near one of the four intersection points, the result will be an image which is more powerful and more visually appealing. It is obviously best if we try to achieve this when taking the image in-camera, but photography is often about capturing split-second moments and if we rush to capture an image before it disappears, or if for some other reason our subject is not in the optimum location in the frame, a little bit of cropping can rectify the situation.  In addition, the crop tool can improve our storytelling abilities in our photography by cutting out unwanted elements from our frame to place the focus on the essential storytelling elements. In the following image both the composition and the storytelling aspect can be improved by a simple crop. In the image the child is almost centre frame. By using crop, I can position her so that she is placed to one side and appears to be walking into the picture, which is a more pleasing image. From a storytelling point of view, I can imagine the child letting go of an adult’s hand and venturing off, so placing her at the side of the frame conveys that element more accurately, in my view. In the next images the two main trees are placed in the centre. This is not the most pleasing position in which to place a main subject. A crop can place the trees on either side of the frame. Which crop should you use? From the Tools menu I open Crop and I see that the 3x3 grid overlays my image. I get the option to pick a crop from the various aspect ratios or to do a free crop.  It is a good idea to experiment with each of these crop settings to see which one suits your image best. If we want to concentrate on a subject in a frame rather than take in the overall scene, if we want to remove unwanted areas from the image or enhance the composition of the image, a free crop will allow us to do that, but the other options shouldn’t be discounted. If you are posting online, for example, and want a square crop, it’s achievable with one click here. Similarly, if you are printing your images it is preferable to go with the standard aspect ratios. This is a picture of a squirrel that I took in my local park. I got as close as I could without scaring him away, but later I cropped the image to bring the squirrel closer! A point to remember is that a phone camera obviously has less megapixels than a top of the range camera so the amount we can crop has to be adjusted accordingly. While cropping should be used sparingly as it does reduce the quality of the image, it can still be a powerful tool to improve the composition of our images. In the example below, I used both the Crop and WB tools to make slight changes to this image. I used the crop tool to remove the distraction at the top of the image, and automatic white balance to adjust the white balance. As you become more familiar with this app and use these two options more frequently, you will soon have an easy shortcut that will enhance any image. Snapseed is a very versatile editing app particularly suited to enhancing your smartphone images. Normally the place to start is with the equivalent of the basic panel on most image processing programmes, the Tune Image Tool. There are many tutorials online which teach us how to get the best out of this tool as well as uncovering the many advanced features of the Snapseed app.

The above words are not the words we are hearing most often at the moment. We are more likely to hear the words fear, anxiety and panic as we all negotiate our way through this unprecedented health and economic crisis. Unfortunately though, these states of mind are not conducive to long term health and while anxiety might be a very normal reaction in a situation which seems to be worsening every day and in which we are so powerless, we do have to take steps to reduce our anxiety levels, for the sake of our mental health. While self-isolating, which many of us are doing at the moment, we need to practice self-care while also reaching out to others to give and receive help and support. Self-care involves not constantly checking news reports and social media feeds, which only serve to increase fear and anxiety, but rather becoming involved in creative, nourishing activities. Often, out of chaos and confusion comes innovation, and over the course of the pandemic there have been a number of online initiatives aimed at supporting well-being in the community, with an increase in online meditation and mindfulness practices, including free introductory sessions, and various campaigns to promote creative activities for children and adults. Creative challenges are being announced on TV, radio, social media and online, aimed at stemming the spread of fear and anxiety in the face of this enormous crisis and getting people absorbed in using their creative mind to support their own mental health. TV presenters and influencers are sharing challenges that will get young people creating while maintaining social distance. They are being encouraged to take on creative challenges in music, comedy, dance, art and craft, story-telling, photography, fashion or beauty, with social media being used to advantage to showcase the best of the creative talents. Cultural centres are promoting family creative activities with daily art challenges for children, while artists are providing free art classes online. In my own particular area, photography, I am delighted to see that some photography teachers are offering free ‘isolation friendly’ classes online, to support those in self-isolation. Photography challenges All of this support from the creative community can prompt us to set our own creative challenges. As I wrote in a recent blog, I am setting aside time each day for photography by doing a Photo a Day for Thirty Days challenge. It would be easy to abandon my photography practice as I am not out and about so freely, so I am committing to taking at least one photograph every day of something positive, something beautiful, something colourful or something that speaks to me in a way that is affirming. One day I might look for an object that is a particular colour, another day I might look for something old. I might photograph beautiful flowers or focus on trees. There are many buildings that I can shoot from different perspectives or use different lenses to capture their essence. I can do some close up photography in my back garden, or still life indoors. I can give myself a theme such as ‘something beautiful’ or ‘after the rain’. I won’t worry whether I use a camera or phone, what will be important is the act of choosing a positive image, and doing so every day as a therapeutic action. If it’s easier to grab a moment with my mobile phone, I’ll do that. Some days I may share my photo on Instagram (wildwillowways), sometimes not, but doing this project will give me a reason to think positive, look for the positive around me and share that positivity with others. It will be a daily act of self-care, a chance to develop my creativity and, most importantly, it will be a way to absorb my thoughts and keep negativity at bay. Shooting close to home If we can go to parks near our home we will always find interesting subjects for our photography and when we are in the ‘isolated but not confined’ situation we can go off to a more remote location in which interesting opportunities for photography surely abound. I find that in any wooded area there are countless subjects which can make for compelling photographs. Unfortunately, this situation has changed or may change for many of us, but there can still be opportunities very close to home, even in our own back garden, for creating interesting images. I recently saw an online photography challenge which asked participants to photograph something no more than 100 metres from home. I didn’t take part in the challenge as I felt I had nothing of interest to take that close to home, but then I realised that the whole point of the challenge was to change that type of mind-set. And there is no time like the present to change that mind-set. At the time that the challenge was taking place I had a look at some of the entries and, while one or two of the participants did have an amazing lake or mountain view on their doorstep, most of the photographs were images celebrating ordinary things close to home. I decided to expand my limited thinking and look for photographic opportunities on my own doorstep. I recommend it as a challenge as it really does help us to become more creative; to dig deeper, to observe more closely that which is around us and to find beauty in the ordinary. Shooting close to home lends itself to abstract photography. The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul – Dieter F. Uchtdorf We all need to keep negativity at bay during these challenging times. Taking on a creative challenge, however small, can help to do this and, as well as developing our creativity, these challenges are a boost to our mental and emotional health. Have a look at what's available and find a creative challenge to suit you.