Focus Forward is where I share my journey in photography. I’ll share the good, the bad, and the ugly, and there’s plenty of all of three.
Gear is what makes photography both more fun and more difficult. Lenses and tripods, flash apparatus and hoods can give us a level of creativity beyond just exposing a sensor to light and hoping for something to happen. I only use my iPhone’s camera for quick shots, just to document something, capture a moment to…
Note: originally published June 14, 2016; updated 10/17/2017 for optimization, and new content at the end. Instagram is fun. I like sharing some of my phone photos. And, let’s face facts–fancy filters notwithstanding, a good portion of the photos on Instagram are really simple phone photos. Yes, the latest iPhones and Android phones have…
I love equipment. For reasons beyond my comprehension, I could sit and watch road work equipment all day. I could watch heavy construction gear for hours. Since I’m always on the lookout for things to photograph, my eye is constantly scanning my horizon. Yesterday it fell on this piece of farm gear. Actually it’s not…
I’m always fascinated by patterns. I can’t help but notice them in sight, sound, and concept. So I’ve enjoyed watching our birds grow from baby puffballs into birds with patterned feathers. As I mentioned before, photographing animals can be a challenge, and even a fairly docile peacock, who should be marvelously photogenic, simply won’t stand…
Photographing animals is easy only if the animal is asleep. Otherwise all we have is varying degrees of difficult. Part of being a photographer is being ready to grab a great shot wherever you happen to be. It’s as true for hobbyists as it is for pros. This guy was the king of the hill where…
I was so excited to take my camera to our Youth Conference, which took place last weekend on the beautiful campus of Troy University in Troy, Alabama. And while it is a lovely campus, I didn’t find a lot of compelling shots. I did see things I wanted to photograph so I could remember them,…
Taking photos of fireworks is really difficult, the many articles written on it notwithstanding. I’ve had some lucky shots, assisted by a lot of preparation and patience. For one thing, you’re asking the camera to interpret a moving object, capture it, and present it beautifully. When you see a gallery of great images, it’s important…
I learned how to use the light meter, and out on a sunny day in downtown Mobile, Alabama, I didn’t get a whole lot of use out of it, but there were some differences I saw. Take a look at these, and I’ll tell you what they were made up of. These were all taken…
As lovely as this photo is, it’s just not very good. The symmetry of the image and its reflection on the water are nice, but the composition just isn’t great. I think it would have been much better if I had shot it in landscape and moved the treeline either up halfway between where it…
Want a weekly recap of posts for Oakwood Experience? No need to check every day for new content, and I won’t spam you with junk. I may send out occasional notifications of special pricing at my art shops, but I respect your time and attention.