Say Cheese

By Gayl Punzalan, Partner & Creative Director at Blue Ink Media

My love for photography started when I was around ten years old, I held that type called waist level viewfinders – where you peek from the top and click! Yeah, remember?! I was awe-struck by what it did that I just wanted to click all day. I was even more excited to see the prints that my dad brought home, and we would sit as a family and look at them one by one, laughing at how badly we looked on some of them.

Photography gives me a sense of peace and reprieve whenever I’m out to take photos. It is especially gratifying when I see my captured images in a big screen – where I can closely look at the vibrant colours and details of each photo.

“Buying a camera does not make us a photographer. It makes us a camera owner.” Same goes with “buying a car doesn’t make us a driver.” Even if you had all the money in the world to buy the most expensive car, if you don’t know how to drive it, that most expensive car is just furniture.

Okay, so how do we “drive” our camera then? Here are some tips.

Landscape Photography

1. Use high depth of field. When I am taking long shots, I make sure that both foreground and background are sharp. 2. Use a tripod. When you are shooting with less amounts of light (like maybe 6:00 p.m. in the autumn season kind of light), you have to have stability or else your image will be blurry. 3. Identify a focal point. If you are taking a picture of a field for example, find a tree, or maybe a wisp of cloud, a hut, or a pile of hay to make your focal point. Lack of focal point makes the scene empty, or dead. 4. Capture movement or action. When you are at a shore, for example, and want to take a picture of the lake, time it where you will capture the wave in action. 5. Consider the time of the day. Photography is about light. The best time to take a landscape photo is when it’s sunny and bright. This is between 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. If you want a dramatic, or dreary effect, do it a little before sunrise, or sunset.

Photographing an Event

• Avoid taking photos of people shoving food into their mouth or when their mouth is open.

They’ll hate you for it. • Don’t take photos of people’s backs or top of their head. • Don’t bother with room shots unless you are taking it to show how big the crowd is. • Delete the closed eyes shots and ones when people just look downright awful.

For group shots:

• Whenever possible, try to get your group outside. • Get people on different levels as opposed to standing all in a row. ¡