I can sum up this section by simply saying this: Don't stop with your first idea.

Your first idea in any photographic situation can always be improved on. As you photograph more and more, you'll notice that your mind and eye do this automatically. While you're shooting, you'll see that by moving slightly to the left or right, or putting on a different lens will bring you to a more clear and visually pleasing result. The more time and thought you put into photographing the same subject or situation, the more evolved your approach becomes.

Evolving Ideas

You don't have to spend years photographing the same subject for this evolution in vision to occur. It can happen in just a few minutes. Here's an example. I was out hiking late one afternoon and spotted this wild sunflower. It intrigued me as a subject, so I made a photograph. Nothing too impressive. Looking around, I spotted a dragonfly. Again, not so impressive. But instead of moving on I began to consider the possibilities. I changed angles and put the dragonfly in front of the sunflower, which the shallow depth of field blurred in the background. My initial, simple idea was beginning to develop into something much better and more graphically complex.

I continued to work with the elements, creating various compositions. It was all over in about ten minutes, when the dragonfly flew off. But before it did, I had come up with this pleasing composition:

Improvisation

As you can see looking at those examples, my first idea was quite weak when compared to the final product. This sort of photographic improvisation, as you go from your first basic idea to a more complex final concept, is a great way to develop your eye for composition and graphic balance. You can always make a plan in advance of what you want to execute, but make sure you remain flexible enough to adjust when your pre-conceived plan isn't working.

Adding On

In this final example, a beautiful sunset over a lake. The reflection of the golden light on the water contrasted very nicely with the dark gray skies that were taking over as the sun vanished. Here are some of the photographs I made in the few minutes I had before the light was gone and the moment was over:

My first frame was a pretty basic representation of the scene. It captured the beautiful moment, but maybe there was another approach.

I walked a few feet to my left and incorporated some shoreline plants into the frame to serve as graphic elements. I've also zoomed in to allow the golden sunlight to fill more of the frame. This approach has moved me away from showing how the golden light is being enveloped by the gray, as I was doing in the first photograph.

Since the scene was too wide to capture in one photograph, I made a panoramic composite with four different frames. This image best captures the scene. But was it better than my second image? Hard to say. Both photographs take me back to that beautiful winter sunset.