Rules?

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. -Ansel Adams

10:00 pm on a friday night in Saint Louis… the kids are in bed (finally!) and I’m lounging on the couch, trusty Vaio laptop in hand, thinking about what to write. The house is amazingly quiet. This is when Andrea and I would be winding down from a busy day, maybe reading or watching TV together, however tonight she is on midnights, so she’s power napping. I thought about all of the tips and tricks and rules of photography that come from past instructors, or photography books, or just from a 25+ year love afair with all things Nikon SLR, wondering which little nugget of knowledge to pass on this time. The problem is that Ansel Adams was right… there are no rules for good photographs. The rule of thirds? (mentally divide your viewfinder into thirds, both horizontally and vertically [think tic-tac-toe] and center your area of interest at either of the four points where the lines cross, instead of directly in the center of the frame) works well… sometimes. Using fill-in flash for backlit subjects? A great starting point, but I’ve had some beautiful ‘accidental’ silhouettes. Fill the frame? Maybe, maybe not.

There are some great suggestions for taking better pictures… Learn the suggestions. We’ll talk about a lot of them here. You’ll find that you rely on them when you find yourself in a situation where you’re not quite sure how to proceed. Learn to use your particular camera. Learn about the relationship between shutter speed and aperture. Learn about using blur to give a sense of movement. Learn about depth of field. Learn all you can about your art. Become a good, technically sound photographer. But rules? Screw the rules. Take all of your technical knowledge and throw away any ‘rule’ that stifles your creativity. Don’t mimic the pictures out of the coffee table books, but be inspired by them and appreciate their composition. By all means, go to Yosemite or the High Sierras and bring your camera. But don’t try to copy Ansel’s work. You’ll fail miserably and waste the opportunity to see things through your own eyes. Do something different. Make your own rules… and when they limit what you’re trying to achieve… then break those as well.

Here’s my rule for today… actually, it’s more like an opinion. - When faced with the choice, I would rather have an average camera and a spectacular lens, than a spectacular camera and an average lens.

- Jim

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