I first picked up a camera, a real one, when I was about 8. I didn't even realize how much of an impact my dad's love of photography had on me until I started going through photos for the Recording Your Youth series I've been doing. I couldn't believe it when I found snapshots of blurry photos with the label "Sarah's Yashica" written in my father's handwriting and dated 1983. I don't even remember that camera. I do remember the Vivitar 110mm I had during our trip to DisneyWorld in 1984. 1. Photos of people are far more meaningful in the long run than pictures of places. My family traveled a lot and my dad took tons of photos of the places we went, but not nearly enough people photos. One tip is to put more people IN the photos of the places.
2. You may love the cute outfits you buy for your kids, but you will really love your photos that focus more on their faces, expressions and eyes. So zoom IN. Get closer. Fill the entire frame. Don't be afraid to cut off a bit of their heads. Trust me on this.
3. Try really hard to remember the rule of thirds. Imagine your frame is divided into thirds. So it has four grid lines, evenly spaced, two vertical and two horizontal. Put the main subject of your photo along those gridlines, rather than centering everything. It makes for much more interestng photos. When you're shooting a portrait, put the person's eyes right at the intersection of two gridlines.
There are so many more basic tips I could offer, but I really don't like to overwhelm people. So keep those three in mind and practice. If you want more tips, let me know in the comments and I'll post some more here or there. Thanks!
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