By Mandy Poole

Experimenting with perspective when taking a photo might make you see the world in a whole new way. - Mandy Poole photo

The inch-wide window to the world opens the mind to new experiences and cultures – all with the click of a button. Each photographer who looks through the viewfinder sees something a little different.

With the massive amount of digital camera technologies available today, everyone is a photographer. But  photography is not just about pointing and shooting.

Geraldine Brophy, a photographer with the Western Star newspaper in Corner Brook, believes anyone can take a photo, but knowing things such as how the shutter and fill flash work sets photographers apart.

“How many people take photos outside on a sunny day and don’t use a fill flash? Just because it’s sunny doesn’t mean there aren’t shadows around,” said Brophy.

In the newspaper world, Brophy says a main thing to consider is cropping within your camera.

“When working at a newspaper you crop, crop, crop.”

Susan Tucker, an amateur photographer from the Stephenville area, said framing the photo is what photography is all about.

“When I look through the viewfinder of a camera, not only do I look at the subject but the things around it. There’s more to a picture than just the thing you are focusing on,” said Tucker.

What she’s talking about, in the photography world, is composition. One compositional technique is known as the rule of thirds -  whereby the photographer lines up the objects in the image inside a grid of two horizontal and two vertical lines, making up nine squares.

On the more personal side, Diane Coffin of Diane Coffin Photography in St. John’s, said making people feel comfortable in front of her lens is how she likes to begin building her images.

“Making people feel comfortable in front of my lens requires getting to know them and vice versa,” said Coffin, who also said that creatively, there’s no particular formula she uses to capture a moment.

“I have no particular way to look through my lens; it just happens. When people are relaxed, the photos just happen,” said Coffin.

Mindset distinguishes a skilled photographer from an amateur. Most people take photos to capture a family gathering or to record a moment on that special vacation. Others view their photos as pieces of themselves.

In A Photographer’s Mind, Michael Freeman wrote, “Photography is extremely good at getting straight to the point. Perhaps too good. There’s something in front of the camera; so shoot and you have an image of it, with or without any thought. Doing this often enough may produce some gems, but thinking first is guaranteed to do better.”