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Dominance Within You
By Tedric GarrisonImagine if you will; one moment you are hanging off the side of a cliff with camera in one hand and the other clutched tightly around the base of a small tree sticking out of the side of this mountain. You are focused on your objective which is the huge waterfall directly in front of you; when suddenly the small tree that you are holding onto looses its grip and you are now falling down from some fifty feet in the air. Strangely enough your first thought is not, “I’m going to die!” but rather, “Water and camera, not a good thing.” Immediately you toss your camera as far away from you as you can.
You almost feel relieved as your eye notices it landing in some large bushes nearby. Then, you actually hit the surface. You never realized water could hurt so badly. Just as your body registers the pain, you instinctively take your last gulp of air. Up until this point the roar of the waterfall was just part of the background noise all around you. Now it is the only noise; and even though that sound is now muffled because you are hearing it from under water, it still penetrates down to your bones.
As you twist and turn and tumble about you are no longer aware which way is up. You open your eyes only to see thousands of tiny air bubbles rising all around you. Frantically you turn yourself over to look up. You do see light, but it seems to be getting darker not brighter. You start kicking and squirming using your hands to swim the long journey to the surface.
The pressure on you ears is enormous, and then comes the weight that seems to be crushing your lungs from all sides. “How deep did I go?” you remember thinking frantically. You start to recognize things on the surface, but your still not there yet. Finally, you break the surface of the roaring water only to be pushed back under within seconds.
“Oh no,” you think to yourself, “I’m not giving up that easy.” As your legs start to go numb from the cold, they feel heavier than normal. You glance down and realize that your trusty tennis shoes now feel like lead weights. As you glance up, a thought comes to you. “If you go straight up again, you’ll be right in the middle again. Desperately, you force your body to go up at an angle. Reaching, clawing, and hoping at any moment to find an edge you can pull yourself up with.
You can see the surface again, but your body is starting to shut down. You shut your eyes for only a second, then it hits. Actually, it’s you that hits the side of the rock wall. It must have jarred you back into trying, because you can’t actually remember crawling out. All you know is that by the grace of God and for some unknown reason you managed to survive.
You have just experienced dominance. Dominance takes you by surprise; forces you out of your comfort zone, and turns you upside down and backwards and spits you back out again. In other words, it’s an emotional rollercoaster that changes your perspective.
Look through as many big name photo magazines or books as you please. By big name, I mean places like Time/Life, National Geographic, News Week, etc. Besides using some of the greatest photographers in the world, they all have something else in common. They all have images with a dominate subject or emotion. You do not see a single snap shot in places like these. Their images are designed so that they are hard to put down.
This is the type of stuff that should inspire or motivate us to reach higher and shoot clearer. By clearer, I am not referring to the focus. Clearer more professional images means: no clutter, no guessing. You have one main subject that is dominate, and use every single rule about the elements of design to make that subject, reach off the page and grab you.
If you are not excited about your images why should anyone else be? You don’t have to fall off a waterfall every time, but if you do, make sure you get the shot. Make sure your work shows emotional impact; have a dominate subject or theme; don’t just guess this will make a good shot. Plan your shooting in advance. Even if you have never been to a particular location before, picture in your mind what you want to accomplish. When you feel the adrenaline pumping through your veins, you’re on your way to taking your best shots ever.
This Article Written By: Tedric A. Garrison Cedar City, Utah
Tedric Garrison has done photography for over 30 years. In college he was an Art Major, and firmly believes that “Creativity can be taught.”
Today; as a writer and photographer he shares his wealth of knowledge with the world, at: http://www.betterphototips.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com
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