A photographers greatest skill?
There are many different skills a photographer needs to create a meaningful photograph. Technical ability, timing, planning. But one skill I think is more important than all others. Especially in travel photography where you have so little control over the elements in your photos. This skill of observation. Observing and taking note of the scene in front of you can make the difference between making a nice picture and telling a captivating story.
Observation, like correct exposure, focus and composition, needs to be practiced and honed until it is second nature. It takes time and effort to get into the habit of analyzing a scene, choosing your best location and perspective and dialing down into the story you want to tell.
If all this sounds like a lot of work to do before you can make a photograph, it’s not. With practice it is really only a short process that you go through in your mind before shooting that first frame.
Learning to observe where you need to be to pick up the best available light for your subject starts to come intuitively once you practice. As does the presence of mind to take a step to the left or a step to the right so that your background becomes less cluttered.
Whether you decide to practice this out in the field or at home, a good starting point is to choose a still subject and decide what it is you want to communicate about the subject. Photograph it from as many different perspectives as you can. Use shallow depth of field and wide depth of field. Fill light and no fill light. Wide angle and close in. Look at how the light changes from frame to frame and how it effects the shape of the subject, the contrasts and overall mood. Then think about which images most reflect how you feel about the subject and what you wanted to communicate.
Soon you will come to understand how to go about transferring what you wanted to say to the images you make. Athletes constantly train the skills they need to perform at their highest level and photographers are no different. Keeping your powers of observation sharp allows you to more effectively communicate the character of your subject.
