photo Archives - Hannah With A Camera

I’ve been actively shooting photos for about six years, since eighth grade. However, I’ve had an interest in photography for way longer! If you go through my desk drawers and old scrapbooks, you can find photos from a disposable camera from Girl Scout camp, church camp, and family vacations. (I recently found a hilarious posed shoot with my American Girl dolls…) Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of tricks about photography and composition. You can read more of my posts about photography here! One of the best things about taking photos for so long means that I’ve made several mistakes and learned from them! Here are the top five mistakes that I’ve made and have learned from.

1. You’re still shooting in auto.

I see so many people that buy a DSLR (a camera that can change lenses, not just a point-and-shoot) in an attempt to learn photography, but they only keep it on auto mode. This is probably the biggest mistake you can make if you’re trying to learn! If you’re not willing to make the full leap and commit to manual mode, you have two options: Av or Tv mode.

Av/A mode, or aperture priority, will help you learn how to control the depth of field. This is the trick to give you that ‘professional’ blurry background that everyone wants. Tv/S mode, or shutter priority, will help you learn how to control the movement in your photos. For example, if you’re taking photos of athletes, this will let you keep them in focus instead of making them blurry once they move out of the screen. After you conquer those two methods, you can advance to mastering manual mode!

Solution: Shoot in Av, Tv, or manual mode.

2. You don’t take advantage of your focal points.

If you think you’ve figured out manual mode or Av mode, then you’ve probably figured out how to blur the background and get that desired bokeh. However, your photos are always out of focus–and you can’t figure out why. To pinpoint focus every time, you need to select a focal point on your DSLR. For Canons, you can do this by pressing the +/zoom in button, and a screen that says ‘AF point selection’ will pop up. Then you can use the dial to change where you want your camera to automatically focus. For portraits, you’ll want to always focus on the eye nearest to you. When you look through the viewfinder of your camera and hold the shutter halfway down, you can see the red dot of the focal point you selected and move your camera or focal point accordingly.

Solution: Select your focal point to nail focus every time.

3. You’re shooting straight into the sun.

I always see people getting excited about going out to do a photoshoot, then taking all their photos in the middle of the day when the sun is at its brightest, making all their photos either overexposed or extremely shadowy. An easy fix to this is to shoot at golden hour. This is a common term in photography that refers to the time of day when the sun is coming up or going down. However, I get that photoshoots are hard to coordinate–so if you’re taking pictures in the middle of the day, find the shade or cloud that doesn’t make your light so harsh.

Solution: Change the time of day

4. You’re always taking photos from eye-level.

Change up your perspective every once in a while! You can go for a bird’s eye view, shoot from the ground, and so much more. For the first photo below, I got down and laid on my stomach to get the right perspective and be on eye-level with my subject. For the second one, I stood above her and shot down. See the difference?

Solution: Change your perspective and move around your subject.

5. You’re following all the rules.

I know, this contradicts probably everything you’ve ever read…but the best part about art is that it’s all about creating your own style. After you learn how to use the rule of thirds, then feel free to shoot symmetrically to create an interesting style. After you learn how to use light ‘correctly,’ then use the shadows from your window to experiment with how light plays across your subject. There are so many options out there, so one of the best ways to learn photography is to just get out there and practice!

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments, I love sharing my knowledge about photography!

xo, Hannah

As a student in AP Art this year, I’m putting together a portfolio to be submitted. One of the categories required is a concentration. For my concentration, I chose the topic ‘faceless portrait’ based off the National Geographic Your Shot challenge. (Side note–if you’re a photographer interested in getting prompts to expand your horizons, Your Shot is an awesome place to check out.)

I had taken this photo last year of my cousins’ grandpa. To some this may just seem like a photograph of hands, but when I showed my family members, they immediately knew who it was without any analysis of details. The mannerism that he holds of dignity and relaxation is unique to him and I didn’t need his face to show that.

This photo is another one of my favorites, taken of my dad at the Nelson-Atkins Museum here in Kansas City. This is called Glass Labyrinth by Robert Morris. Watch the aerial video of the opening day, it’s super cool! The way the glass reflects and intersects often creates an interesting illusion and this created a sort of mirror effect–real on one side, ghostly on the other.

This photo was taken at a Sporting KC game of one of the fans in front of me. The way his hands are on his head and how his head is tilted back in frustration reminds me of something a coach or a father would do. While this position on an adult would be seen as typical, seeing on a child provides a humorous aspect.

This is possibly my favorite photo I’ve taken so far! I took it while serving food at a homeless shelter. What draws me to this photograph is how much you can tell about the people without seeing their expressions. You can tell that the man loves the little girl and that he’ll protect her. You don’t need a face to explain love.

These photos are all unedited and I plan to share more in the future. Photography is one of my greatest passions and I love expressing myself through it. That being said, I recently did an interview with one of my favorite photographers and I’ll share that on the blog soon!

Thanks for reading,