Getting good wildlife photos is always challenging. Here is another good example of simplicity and complexity from a wildlife photographer. In the first photo, it’s hard to focus on the bird because of the complexity of the flowering tree.

In the next photo, the photographer was able to catch the birds in a different spot. Notice how the flowering tree frames the birds in front of a simpler background.

Here are more photographs demonstrating simplicity in composition.

Using sensory signals from our eyes, the brain filters the information to help us understand the view of the world around us. Humans have a sense of what is ascetically pleasing and what is a jumbled mess. Even subconsciously we can tell if something is not right when our senses are fooled.

But while the brain constantly filters the extraneous information we don’t care about, something different happens when we consider art. It is then we make a more conscious judgment of the piece. Is it balanced or unbalanced? Does it have good color or bad? Does it please the senses or not? These questions are asked because we are trying to evaluate based on the rules of composition even if we don’t know what they are.

Composition is spatially arranging parts as they relate to each other and to the whole. We celebrate good composition in music, art, literature and architecture. The same is true of photography which explains why some pictures are more appealing than others.

The rules of composition are not cast in stone. In fact, it’s better to refer to them as guidelines rather than rules. The composition guidelines have evolved over time and originate from different people, places, artistic impression and ideas. You don’t have to follow these guidelines but knowing them will help you understand how great photographers are able to capture winning pictures. Maybe your next photograph will be in that category.

Next: Simplicity versus Complexity

What motivates your picture taking? What are you trying to accomplish when you bring out the camera?

While pondering this, I came up with the following broad photographer types. See if any of these descriptions fit you.

Type 1 – The Cell Phone Photographer
I’m not sure this even deserves a category. You’ve all seen them whipping out their camera phone on a whim having no idea just how lousy the picture will turn out when viewed on anything larger than a 2-inch screen. Even though poorly lit and out of focus, they email the newborn baby pic to everyone, who can now view it on a computer monitor, and it’s still difficult to tell whether it’s a boy or a girl.

Type 2 – The Casual Photographer
Loves her point and click camera. Her goal is getting everyone centered in the shot without chopping off any heads. She doesn’t worry about the lighting because the auto-flash takes care of that. She has no idea what composition means so to her a great shot is a fluke.

Type 3 – The Amateur Photographer
Doesn’t mind spending a little more money on equipment and has experimented with different camera settings to understand how they work. She pays more attention to her surroundings while taking pictures and many of her shots turn out as expected. She may not know the rules of composition but she still has an eye for making a photo more interesting.

Type 4 -The Professional Photographer
Spends more on a single lens than the amateur paid for all her equipment combined. He has the right equipment for any condition whether he’s shooting in studio or on location. In addition to having the right equipment, he chooses interesting and unusual locations to make his photos unique. Although most of his shots turn out as expected, he continually critiques his own work to improve the composition of his photos.

What type of photographer are you? Did you notice that only the professional photographer thinks about the rules of composition before taking the shot?

Getting proficient at taking great photographs takes more than just learning how your camera works. While it’s possible to get great pictures without knowing the rules of composition, how are you going to know if following them, or not, will lead to becoming a great photographer.

Some people will scoff at following the rules as something only art critics are concerned with. Ansel Adams seemed to agree when he said “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”

We will forgive the Type 1 and Type 2 photographers if they don’t care how their photographs turn out. But if raising your skill level beyond that of the casual photographer is what you seek, then you must do more than just upgrade your camera equipment. You must learn something about the rules of composition.

We will talk more in depth about these rules in coming posts.