Welcome to the launch of A Spoonful of Moxie! In the upcoming weekly posts, I’ll be sharing knowledge of how to use your camera so you can get better snapshots. Sound fun? Great! Let’s dive in, shall we?

There are so many topics that we can cover, but I’ve decided that the first post won’t be about light, exposure or other technical subjects. Instead, we’re going to cover composition. Why start here instead of with the technical details? Simple. We all want pictures that don’t chop off Uncle Joe’s head, exclude Grandma’s feet, or give little Suzy a tree growing out of her head. {awkward…}  So let’s start with the basics of composing a shot.  There are a few things to keep in mind when taking a picture.

Don’t crop (cut off) body parts!  Example:

• When your son’s arms are outstretched and he’s running around making airplane noises, it’s adorable and a moment to be captured.  CLICK goes your shutter – and his left hand is gone.  {awkward…}
• Your mother is standing there, proudly holding her newborn grandbaby.  CLICK goes your shutter – and your mom’s feet went POOF.  {awkward…}

This picture (excuse the quality, it was an old scanned photograph) is of our then three year old younger daughter.  You’ve seen her around here before, with the last time being in the tween model call post.  A cute shot of her at Easter time, showing off her bike.  Saucy little thing, isn’t she?  A cute snapshot of a cute moment in time.

 
 
Now what if my mom (who took the picture) cropped her feet?  {awkward…}

Loses a bit of its charm, doesn’t it?

Another thing to think about is placement of your subject.  Make sure there is nothing behind them that might look odd.  As bad as it would be to crop Uncle Joe’s head, it’s just as bad to have a lamp post sprouting from it.  If there is something behind the person you’re taking a picture of, ask them to move over.  If that can’t be done, then YOU move over.  A little sideways shuffle never hurt anyone – and hey, if there’s music playing, even better since you get a little boogey time, too.  ;)

Here’s an example – this would have been a serene shot, except I was walking when I took it and not paying attention.  I should have waited until I was a bit in front of her and then snapped.  Instead?  My oldest looks like she has a tree growing out of her back.  {awkward…}

So there we have it, a brief composition lesson about body parts, to wit, people enjoy their arms & legs attached and prefer to not have weird growths coming out of them.  Next week, I’ll continue our composition chat with the Rule of Thirds.  Learn it, love it, and then break it.  Until then, I leave you with a question – where do you need a little “moxification” in your camera skills?  Let me know and I’ll be sure to put it on the list of subjects to cover.

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