The Amateur Property Photographer

This is a shot I took from my deck around 12.30pm on Sunday. I think is a perfect example of the second type of winters day in Canberra. Even the weather seemed confused with patches of blue mixed with patches of dark cloud.

As soon as the sun would come out I'd grab my camera and start opening curtains, turning on lights, decluttering, and *poof* the sun would disappear again! This made for rather tricky photographing conditions, eventually I gave up and focused my energy elsewhere.


Whilst I'm learning (in fact always, I have a bit of a perfectionist streak) I want to take as many great photography shots as possible.

So what makes the difference between creating an average and a great photograph?

Although your answer may be different to mine, for me the difference between an average shot and a great shot seems to boil down to one of two things:

1. Experience
2. Luck

Nothing will increase my experience but more experience (this is why I'm doing Project 52 AU, it's a large part of what Project 52 AU is about). However I believe that you can create your own luck and that the secret to increasing one's luck has been known for around 2,000 or so years:

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)

Rather than continuing to make unchecked mistakes as I have in the past few weeks, I decided to invest my time this weekend trying to increase my luck. I've done so by making better preparations and by creating a system for recording the success of my photography.

The changes I've made make sense to me and are something I should have thought of from the start (I was a boyscout - "be prepared"). I'm hoping that by making these changes I will be better able to make more from the opportunities and as a result will create more great photographs.


What are your tips, tricks, ideas and thoughts on the "secret" of creating a great photograph?