art treatise
photography tips
A pro offers advice gleaned over the
years to help take better photos
Story and Photography by Harry Taylor
WOULD wager that every photographer who has been shoot-ing
for some amount of time, say 10-20 years, has a memory
bank of successes and disasters spinning in their head every
time they pick up a camera.
My photography started by borrowing my dad’s Kodak
Retina IIIc camera from the 1960s and taking a school trip to
Europe in 1982.
The 35mm with manual adjustments was a big jump from
my 110 Kodak Pocket Instamatic that I had used occasionally,
along with my Brownie Starmite. I had no idea what I was doing
but I knew to set the aperture to F-16 if the sun was out and don’t
bother if it’s dark.
Fast forward to an associate degree in photography from
Chowan University, a BFA in photography from the University of
the Arts and 25 years of daily commercial and personal photo
shoots, I have accumulated quite a few ideas of things that would
qualify as tips.
Artist Dory Spikes, No Boundaries Artist Colony, Bald Head Island,
2019, 4 x 5 inch film.
Spring Afternoon, Winston-Salem, 2016.
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WBM march 2020