While those previous examples were all nearly perfect, sometimes it’s harder to see those out in the real photography world. So I took a trip to Salt Lake City in order to demonstrate some of these concepts with average photography. While walking down the street in central Salt Lake I saw a small purple shoe in the road; I saw an opportunity. I got down on the sidewalk, which admittedly was awkward for me and any bystander. I took multiple shots each with different placements of the shoe, as I went through photos I saw that one could fit the rule of thirds with a slight amount of cropping, and this one worked out great. It works so well due to the shoe landing on one of the intersection points of the lines and, the edge of the road lines up with the upper horizontal line.

Now, in my opinion leading lines are one of the most easy concepts to accomplish and understand. A very easy place to find these leading lines for a beginner such as myself, is an alley way. In larger cities alleys can be slightly dangerous so I made sure to be aware at all times, while still focusing on my shots. I once more got very low to the ground and saw my focal point at the end of the alley; I also saw that it would double in the reflection of the water adding even more attention to the central focal point. The yellow lines are one of the many examples of leading lines in this photo that lead to that central focal point. I had to be careful and quiet though, there was a homeless man sleeping behind me.

My final example was the easiest to get, because without a doubt, depth of field is the easiest concept to grasp and take exemplary photos with. The yellow highlight shows what is in focus in the frame and what I wanted to stay out of focus. This photo was taken in Washington Square Park right next to the Salt Lake City and County Building. I set the lens of the camera right between the arm rest and seat of the bench; this was an easy photo to take but it turned out very nice.

Photography has a lot of concepts to grasp and, starting with a few simple yet familiar subjects makes it easier to understand the camera and the concepts that will be established in the future. learning these early on in a photography career will help any photographer evolve.