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Chapter 12. What are you looking at?

Learn to see things without preconceptions and unlock your creativity.

Preconceptions

Great photographs are as much about choice of subject as about composition. You have to look for a subject, then you have to learn how to see the subject, and only then will you have something to compose. Seeing is very different from looking, and both are heavily influenced by our preconceptions (FIG. 12.1 and 12.2).

Few birds are as beautiful as the great egret in breeding plumage. I have many images of these birds and wanted something that was different from the standard portrait—but still recognizable as a great egret. Framing just the long feathers and black legs works. California.

Figure 12.1. Few birds are as beautiful as the great egret in breeding plumage. I have many images of these birds ...

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