We often miss a lot as we go through life.  This applies to almost everything we do as well as in our photography.  Often, especially when touring with a group we only look for, and take, what I’ll call “postcard” pictures.  The pictures that everyone seems to take; the same views recorded over and over by almost everyone carrying a camera.   We don’t take the time to look around, including behind us, for the often more interesting views.

We need to think as we compose our views.  It works two ways.  We need to take the time to compose our shots and ensure that we don’t end up with features we didn’t want, like the classic pole appearing to stick out of someone’s head or some other distracting element at the edge of the scene.   Take the time to review the extremities of your picture before you push the shutter.   The same care needs to be taken to ensure that we do include the local color, or those things which help establish what makes the view different from all the other pictures.  Often when touring highly visited tourist sites our biggest concern is trying to get a picture without people in the shot, when including them can enhance the picture.

How well did you look at the above picture?  Did you see the baby in the lower left portion of the frame?  Click on the picture and then click on the 1200 x 1600 size above it and look more closely.  I think that it adds to the overall image by adding a human element to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin Ireland, the largest Church in Ireland.  This building was built in 1200 – 1270 and later fell into disrepair.  Between 1860 and 1900 a full-scale restoration was carried out by the Guinness family, and we still get to admire the architecture today.  How many views have this human element to help offset the cold, dark, but impressive architecture?

All that I have mentioned above also applies to life in general.  Take time, slow down, look around, take it easy, enjoy yourself, and make sure you don’t miss the finer details in life.

Here are a few more pictures from inside the Cathedral.  They were all a challenge to take due to the low light levels.

PS, for those inquiring minds, these pictures were taken with the Olympus E-P1 camera with the Panasonic 14 mm lens at a wide open aperture of f/2.5 and ISOs varying between 400 and 1600.  They were taken as raw files and then developed with Adobe Lightroom.