Pro Photography Tips: Remember the Experience – David Hobby

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Here’s a few more tips from David Hobby from our interviewon the FlashBus, be sure to watch it and check out his books.

Marc: Composition: We’re all looking for that mojo, for the secret sauce, the thing that makes your image really stand out. What is it for you that gives you the mojo in a composition?

David: I’m a newspaper guy, so I’m pretty simple, compositionally speaking. I mean, I’m not like Peterson’s Photography Rule of Thirds issue, it always has to be right there, but I’m just looking for a natural composition that leads my eye to where I want it to be led. The viewer’s eye to where I want it to be led. I’m probably more meat and potatoes with my composition, and I try to be a little more edge with my light, so I’m safe in one area and a little out there in the other area.

Marc: Okay, so, David, if I had to ask you — I’m not going say your top ten or your top five, but if you were to give a list of some of the really important points that you’ve learned about photography over the years, what would those things be?

David: I think people think photography is about f-stops and shutter speed and light; for me photography is about people and experiencing things. I was photographing an opera singer, a soprano, singing in the shower the other day in a marble bathroom, and that is a life experience. That’s the coolest thing. Photography is experiential, it’s about making a connection with a person and recording that connection in a visual form, and saving that. It’s much more so about that than it is about are you Nikon or Canon, or where did you put your keylight. 20 years later, I don’t remember what lens I used when I made my pictures, I remember the experiences that were wrapped around the pictures.

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