Spotted.

My, what pretty photos you take.

Often one will just catch our eye and we will talk about the reasons we love it.  That is how this new section, Spotted, came about.  While we know that constructive criticism helps a lot, we thought that it is so much better to learn from what is good rather than focusing on what is bad.  There is already too much negativity in this world.

We know that what is “good” is subjective, but the goal of the Spotted section is to help you learn how to look at photographs and keep those aspects in mind when you are shooting your own.

Each image featured in the Spotted section will be broken down in the following steps:

Composition – The details and form of a shot.

Color – and sometimes even the lack of color… Just the tone of the image set by the choice of colors.

Charm – The literal and emotional subject represented in the photograph.

Choices – Getting it right or making it work while breaking the rules.  The technical details of the shot.

We have the flickr group where you can submit photos for consideration or post links to your blogs on our facebook fan page wall.  We may just spot something of yours while we blog hop, but we will always ask first.

The photo we have selected to launch Spotted is:

rainy day. by Tracy Flaming

Composition – There is just so much of the composition to love.  Repetition…square within a square.  Repeat color blocking.  Graphic dividing lines that guide your eye around the shot.  The horse head on the t-shirt merging with the jeans of a similar color to almost merge the two subjects.  The phone cord creating a shape that mirrors the reigns of the horse.  The gray corners of the mother’s vest “pointing” back down into the shot.  And not to mention, the overall use of the rule of thirds.

Color - Keeping the image in 3 main colors ( grey, pink and tan) with white details creates order that defines the space.  The use of a small color palette simplifies a busy image.

Charm –  The connection between mother and daughter is apparent in the relaxed stance and the literal connection of hands being held.  The child’s quirky expression suits the quirky mood of the shot.

Choices – A great shot can be lost if it is not properly exposed.  Not always, but in this case, the perfect exposure just makes it easy to recognize all the other great aspects.  The low perspective works well in this case as it is unexpected in a self portrait taken by an adult.

While some of these things may be unintentional on the part of the photographer, all of the elements work to make a really great image.  What we hope you come away with from these segments is the ability to analyze photography considering many different factors.  Going beyond snapshots is not just merely learning how to master your camera, but understanding the components of great photographs.