Some good friends (and a new one!) met downtown for an evening of just shooting and talking photography. We spent the first 10-15 minutes just standing around talking and looking around wondering what in the world we were going to shoot!

I decided that I was just going to start off finding random things and trying to make them into an interesting image. I think we all started off kind of awkwardly but within minutes we were clicking away like crazy. I took a lot of interesting shots - to me anyway. I also took a lot of really un-interesting shots. Some were just dumb, really. lol But overall, we had a blast and ended up with some really neat things. It was also fun to see everyone's perspective on the same subjects.

So what is my point in this Photography Friday post? Get out there and shoot! Try to explore different things. Play with the light on inanimate objects so you and learn more about how to light up a live body. Look for shapes and textures. What about those images do you love? Why do you love it? This will help your eye to see things differently and this can then be applied to your portraits. To just shoot a person and focus on their expression will result in a cute snapshot, at best. There is so much more to an image than just getting a smile from your subject. Sometimes shooting random objects will take your focus off the emotion tied to the subject and then you will see other things you need to work on. You will see other things that need to be part of the image, or not. So when you go back to shooting that cute little niece, you'll not only see her cute smile, but the pole that looks like it's growing out of her head, or how the shadows fall on her face and make her look like a raccoon, or that she's completely out of focus... take the time to really learn photography at it's highest standards so you are producing more than just a snapshot.

Capture memories, not just randomness.

Those memories are no less priceless even though it ended up blurry or poorly composed, but why not take it to another level? Why not capture what you want to remember and how you want to remember it?

"A picture is worth a thousand words."

But only a thousand so don't use up those words with clutter and unskilled technique if you have a choice. You didn't pay extra for a fancy camera only to produce the same quality as the one your neighbor got at a garage sale. That is just silly. If you want to learn, then learn. If you are happy with your snapshots, then be happy with your snapshots. There really isn't anything wrong with snapshots. I take them all the time and love those moments of my family. But for those of you who think you want to be a pro, remember that your clients can take their own snapshots and they expect more from you. Deliver more because they are worth it and so are you.

And since a post is just no fun without a picture, here are a few from our little outing the other evening:

I was looking for fun textures, shapes and colors. Found some on various fireplugs (as my grandma calls them!)...