Why This Picture Works / Top 25
MY TOP 25 FAN PHOTOGRAPHS / One posted every week . Place the cursor over the photo to read my comments.
Top 25
[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_14-jennifer-polk_0.jpg"]
<font size="14">I sent Jennifer Polk an email asking about the details of this photograph and she responded with this: "With T-ball here it's a brand new season for me to practice what I love the most, sports photography. Don't get me wrong I love still life and portraiture, but something about the moments I'm able to catch and freeze in time much like the one you're talking about that thrills me! Can July come any faster? (FOOTBALL! )" She loves the real life drama that's at every sporting event—even t-ball. Yes, real-life drama at t-ball. Sports are a microcosm of our world and some people were born to tap into the highs and lows of victory and defeat with a camera; Jennifer Polk is one of them. This boy just got a little dinged making a play to third. It hurt, but he stood up, shook it off, and stayed in the game. Jennifer had the good sense to stay there with him. The tear is breaking perfectly around his chin, but he's playing through the pain, ready to make the next out. This is a kid that plays with his heart on his sleeve, being photographed by a woman who photographs with hers equally exposed; the result is the photograph you see here. As I write this in early April, there's a woman in rural Georgia fantasizing about the first kickoff next fall. Her passion for the sporting world is infectious and delightful. But her ability to compassionately feel for little league athletes she's only casually acquainted with is much bigger than her subject matter. This is my #14. Congratulations to Jennifer Polk. We can't wait to see what you bring us from the football field in October. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_15-vanessa-vail.jpg"]
<font size="14">There are so many obvious reasons to love this photo, but I keep coming back to the father's shoes. He's decided he just doesn't care if they get a little trashed on the rocks. He's going to get down there on the beach anyway and show his boy how it's done. He doesn't even need to take his jacket off. This picture has a special place in my heart; it was one of the first photographs taken by a Facebook fan that really moved me. I knew we were onto something—almost two years ago now—when pictures like this started coming in. I remember my immediate reaction. I thought to myself that it was straight out of The Family of Man, the great and famous photo book and exhibit of the 1950's. This is a picture of fathers and sons everywhere, and not just a man and a boy in the western hemisphere someplace. Their body language is so lovely, isn't it? Vanessa's timing perfectly captured the curved arms, legs and billowing jacket of a man giving it his all. The boy's body responds, "Wow, I didn't know you could do that!" Yes, he can, and other thing you can't imagine, too. But I keep coming back to the shoes. And the suit. He's simply decided that getting a little dirty and sweaty is worth the price for this perfect, timeless moment. I don't know what Vanessa had her feet. It's fun to think she had to get out of the car and step onto the rocks in her most expensive party shoes. If that's the case, she wasn't over-dressed; the real party was on the beach and dad knew it. He'd been to that party with his father. Ranking photographs is really just an exercise in fun, isn't it? I love this picture so much, I could have put it right at the top. But I'm calling it #15. #1 sounds right, too. As with so many of the pictures in my Top 25, I could go either way. Vanessa, this picture is so delightful. I can't imagine a man in the world who doesn't think about his father when he looks at it. Thank you so much for this. I proudly place your picture in stellar company. Heartfelt congratulations. Welcome to the Top 25.[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_16-missy-shew-johnson22.jpg"]
<font size="14">If Missy Johnson didn't shoot this picture in a photo studio, it looks like she did, and that's why it's so beautiful. A photo studio is any place where you have complete control over the backgrounds and the light, and both of them are perfectly controlled here. If you've never taken a flower out of its natural environment to be photographed, please let this picture inspire you. I read once that van Gogh stared at a chair for hours before he did the first brushstroke of its still life portrait. I don't know how much time Missy spent alone with this flower before she pushed the button, but everything indicates a lot of time and thought went into it. Composition is one of the most difficult aspects of photography to teach, and this picture shows why. How could you ever tell anyone how to compose this picture? We only know it works because the photographer showed it to us. All of the angles, all of the lines, all of the negative whitespace behind the flower contribute to this beautiful shape. And because this gorgeous plant is seen in an artificial light, it feels hyper-real, more crisp. Our senses are heightened as we absorb every little nuance. As with all the pictures in my top twenty-five, this one gets better the longer you look at it. I suspect if you stared at this picture for hours you'd be a better person for it. I just looked at it for thirty minutes and I can feel its power changing me. Thank you, Missy, for that. I'm proud to put your work among the best of the best. Missy Johnson, #16.[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_17-kelly-gargac-aldrich.jpg"]
<font size="14">To be honest, I don't know they do it; the bird photographers on our Facebook page, I mean. I don't know how flowers can fly, either, but here's a spectacular photograph of one. Is there a medium that celebrates miracles more than photography? I don't think so. And I'm quite serious. If you plopped me down at Kelly's hummingbird feeder and left me alone for a couple of hours, I'm not sure I would know how to duplicate this feat. Patience has never been anywhere near my top three virtues, and you need patience in spades to produce work like this. Great nature photographers remind me of middle-school teachers. (Please bear with me on this analogy.) You need a special blend of personality, technical skill, knowledge, and sainthood to hang with this crowd and create beauty while you're at it—I'm so jealous of these people. I recall reading an interview with Roger Tory Peterson, the great bird illustrator, remarking how challenging it is to shoot a definitive bird photograph for identification. The feathers and markings and colors are so difficult to capture in a single photograph and anyone who has ever tried to photograph a flying bird will need no convincing of that. If there's a better photograph of hummingbird feet out there, I'm not sure I've seen it. In his book, A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle suggested that you can find your way back to God by looking at a bird. We have several fans on our Facebook page that regularly prove that with their cameras. Kelly Gargac Aldrich's wonderful photograph is in my Top 25 Fan Photos as a tribute to all of them. They brighten our Facebook page and our lives and I treasure the fact that they found us and regularly share their photographic miracles with us. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_18-faye-kepner.jpg"]
<font size="14">The very best dance photographs are visual choreography themselves. The lines flow and move and you can almost hear the music. There’s pageantry and color and flowers and grace. The more you look the better it gets. The very best dance photographs belong in a frame of gold and if I had one handy I’d put Faye’s picture in it right now. Everything tells us we should be able to see the faces of the three closest dancers. But there’s a reverse going on here; it’s a bit of a bait-and-switch. And that, for me, is where the art of this photograph lies. The foreground is about costumes and and bodices and necks and, then, in the background, we find out what everyone looks like. The three smaller dancers are beautifully framed by their foreground sisters; the face of the woman in the middle is carefully placed in the crook of a woman’s neck as though Balanchine himself put her there. And, yet, the focus is on the costumes close to us; we can see the gorgeous details. And, finally, in case you hadn’t noticed, you are one of the dancers. Faye has put you on stage with them. You won’t be taking a picture that looks like this when your daughter’s in the Nutcracker; you’ll be in the middle of an auditorium wishing you could be up there with your camera. But today Faye has given us the thrill of a great impressionist painting; it’s simultaneously simple and complex and bold. This is what ballerinas see and that’s why it’s number 18 on my Top 25 fan photos list. Congratulations and thank you to Maestro Faye Kepner for an exquisite performance. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_19-ashley-gallagher-mcalister-web.jpg"]
<font size="14">If you've ever needed any evidence that faces don't need to be in a picture to tell a story, feast your eyes on this. Yup, they got real dirty and it certainly seems as though a trip to the hose is in their future. But what I love about this photograph is that without any facial expressions, it's a relationship picture. The older kids seem to be protecting the diapered one in the middle. There's plenty of insecurity in this picture; look at the body language on the left. If experience has taught them anything, they know that at times like this, trouble may be around the corner. They're going to stick together; you can see it in the way they're holding hands. The two older kids—standing protectively a little closer to the camera— are letting the little one know that everything is going to be okay; mom's taking a picture, and therefore, she's not as mad as you might think. It's alright, soon she will be sitting at her computer, laughing to herself. The bolts on the wall and the detailing at the floor suggest they haven't made it into the house yet. Someone got to them just in time before they ended up mud wrestling on the sofa. Photographing semi-naked kid bodies is always going to be a thing of beauty, but when you tell a story along the way, it takes it to the next level. This picture makes me laugh. I've been those kids and I've been the one photographing those kids, and both were great fun. And I can also remember thinking that my little brothers and sister just didn't understand the implications of their actions. I would have to run interference and protect them from parental judgment. They didn't mean it, mom. They were just having fun. She knows. I love the way Ashley turned a messy moment into a beautiful moment preserved. It's why I'm so happy to put her picture in my Top 25. Great work, Ashley. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_20-dawn-hendsbee.jpg"]
<font size="14">I can't get the word cosmic out of my head when I look at this photograph—and it's funny, too. Cosmic and funny are an unbeatable combination. We don't need a garish, commercial sign randomly posting a giant question mark to remind us that life is one big mystery, but when it happens, it poetically drives the point home, doesn't it? First of all, this picture succinctly asks us why we are here and where are we going? He seems lost, she seems sadly disconnected and separated by a profoundly placed piece of punctuation. And then, there's the funny part—the sex part. Men and women will always be separated by their differences and mystified by their attraction to each other. I love how he appears to be looking at the sign and she appears to be looking at him. There's a "why you?" aspect to this picture. Elliott Erwitt, the great American photographer, is probably my all-time favorite street photographer. His pictures are funny. Not belly laugh funny, but Dawn Hendsbee funny. This could so easily be an Elliott Erwitt photograph— serious, poignant, and really, really funny. I will speak for Mr. Erwitt when I say that he would love this picture. Dawn has been inspiring the Facebook fans of How to Photograph Your Baby with her wonderful street photography for almost two years. She is constantly commenting on our world in her unique way by going for a long walks on the street alone with her camera. It's because of people like her that our page morphed from a baby site to a how-to-photograph-your-life site. I can't remember if Dawn has children, but certainly one of her babies is the street. Dawn's baby is full of pain and laughter and anger and love and question marks, just like your baby. And I have to believe, based on the body of work, that Dawn loves her baby just as much as you love yours. So many of us have been thrilled to watch Dawn grow as a photographer over these years. It's why I'm placing her world-class street photograph in a place of honor in my Top 25 Favorite Fan photographs. Heartfelt congratulations to you, Dawn, and thank you. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_21-alice-mcguire.jpg"]
<font size="14"> Some sunlit wood. A background of solid black. Some white lines, some black lines, and it all screams spider. How is that possible? Photography is funny that way. If you distill the world down to it's most basic elements you often create a scene of high impact and drama. To be honest, this picture is not so much about spiders; it would be difficult to ID this spider from this picture—the internet is full of "better" spider photographs. This picture is about how Alice sees the world and how we are connected to Alice by her unique vision. The privilege of showing people how you see your world in your own way is at the heart of why looking at photographs is so enriching. Would you have taken this picture that day? If you're like me, you would like to THINK you would have, but I suspect we both would have kept sipping our lemonade as the spider strolled by, if we would have even noticed our little arachnid friend in the first place. And there are practical lessons to be learned from Alice's graphic portrait. Err on the side of keeping things simple. Eliminate everything that doesn't add something. Strip things down to their the basics. This is a skill that takes practice, and I count looking at this picture as practice. Watch how other people eliminate clutter from their pictures. Imagine all of the other stuff in this spider's universe that Alice didn't show us. There is a visual discipline going on here that we can all learn something from. I love simplicity and that's why I put Alice's spider photo in the Top 25. </font>[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_22-ashley-archambo-anderson.jpg"]
<font size="14">Every once in a while a picture comes along that gets better and better the longer I look at it. There are so many great pictures that come in to the Facebook page every day but this one grabbed me pretty hard. Let me tell you all the little reasons I think this picture works so well: It’s scary and optimistic at the same time. It’s a big, big world out there and he’s getting ready to get his feet wet. The pavement at the bottom tells us that he’s left home base where life is safe, but when he got to the gravel he took his feet off the pedals and started to rethink. You can feel the tension in the little bit of his feet that you can see. We know there’s something good out there. Look at that beautiful golden light on the left. But there’s a long road in front of him and it's out of focus at the end. Who knows what’s going to happen when he gets there. He’s wearing a solid red shirt. That never hurts. Despite the fact that I always tell people not to put their subjects in the middle the rule has been broken beautifully here. All of that space around him just adds to the mystery and overwhelming size of the new world. His head is above the horizon line. The photographer wisely lowered her camera. That makes us feel his optimism or maybe it's courage or maybe it's both. In either case it feels good and we like this boy. Who among us doesn't wish we had taken this picture? It's gorgeous. But only Ashley took this photograph. She asked if there was a way to make it pop more. It needed some contrast and a little bit of saturation, but I did my best to stand back and just let it be what it already was. #22 on my all time favorites list. Great work, Ashley.[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_23.jpg"]
<font size="14">It's either early in the morning or late in the day—we can tell by the sunlight streaming in at a low angle—but in either case the little devil is getting ready to pounce and I just love him for it. Maybe I'm such a push over for this picture because I have two little boys at home. Someone will be crying soon but for now I don't care, and apparently neither did Aimee when she grabbed her camera. What a wonderful picture of boys being boys. Let's take a look at how this picture is put together. The sunlight says something about when and at the very least creates a mood. The horizontal streaks of light are such a great compositional contrast to the vertical lines of the stair railing. Notice how the boy on top is beautifully framed against the darkness of the doorframe in the background. It's exactly where he belongs. If the railing was behind him I wouldn't be showing you this picture. Both boys have some light on their faces which immediately grabs us—it makes a huge difference. I even like the clutter of toys on the far left. They hint at the chaos that's about to happen. An obvious parental reaction to this situation would be to start yelling and stop the impending disaster. But Aimee was able to step back for a moment and see the humor and the humanity of her daily life. Like all of the pictures in my Top 25, I wish I had taken it. When you're #23 you've moved in front of hundreds of wonderful pictures people have posted on our site in the last couple of years. Congratulation, Aimee. </font>[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_24.jpg"]
<font size="14">I'm the guy who's always telling amateurs to get close and then get closer. Fill the frame with the important stuff I say. Eliminate everything that doesn't belong. And that, ironically, is why I appreciate Elisa's photograph so much. Everything belongs here. She ignored my advice and did the right thing. She moved away from the subject. Knowing when to shoot an overall shot is not as obvious as it would seem. If you had been there that day with your camera you may have been tempted to get in close on the little boy and his walking stick and there may very well have been a wonderful picture to be had. But Elisa has wisely and dramatically shown us the where the boy was walking and taken us to the hill top with him. When you're in love with a little boy you can sometimes become blind to even the most incredible cloud formations. To see a great overall scene requires practice; it's what great photographers do. They're simultaneously getting in close and looking for overall shots. It's not easy. The mechanics of the composition are classic and straight forward but worthy of recognition. The rule-of-thirds is at play here in spades. The horizon line is one-third up from the bottom and the boy is roughly one-third in from the left walking into the space on the right that Elisa has thoughtfully provided him. And for me, a lifetime lover of black and white, the absense of color is only a benefit. When I suggest that you eliminate everything that isn't helping I mean everything. Color, for me, would have diminished it's timelessness. Is this picture a cliche? Absolutely. (It is afterall a picture of a little boy walking over a hill.) But it's a beautifully executed cliche and many of the best photographs are. Cliches are cliches because they work. Do not shy away from cliches. I've loved this picture since the day Elisa posted it and it's why I put it at #24 in my favorite photos by fans list. </font>[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_25_0.jpg"]
<font size="14">This is one of my standard photo–tips–guy rants: Put a sleeping baby next to a window. The light should be soft—not harsh direct sunlight. Use a dark blanket as a neutral background. Neutral means no Sesame Street characters allowed. Turn off the flash. Get close. (By that, I mean, get closer than you probably ever have with your camera.) Push the button a lot to increase the luck factor. Experiment with composition. Bringing your instruction manual to the party probably won't hurt. Push the button some more. Play. Have fun. That in a nutshell is my recipe for the most direct route to photographic satisfaction. Taking a close-up photograph of someone you love is something many amateurs never do and yet, is so incredibly simple and satisfying that I'm tingling with excitement assuming you've never done it and I've now convinced you that you should. Marilyn has executed my plan perfectly. I love everything about this photograph. Babies, I think, often look better in black-and-white than in color. Most babies have dings and scratches and blotchy spots that seem to go away when the color vanishes. So good call on the black-and-white, Marilyn. (And guess what? There are a bunch of over fifty-year-olds that look good in balck and white for the same reasons.) This composition is simple and yet so sophisticated. Look at the space between the hip and the edge of the photograph in the top right-hand corner. It's so important to have a little bit of tasty separation at the edges.Then look at the perfectly executed space between the top of the head and the left edge of the photograph. There's even a little bit of light there to show us that the space is there. And it's completely real. The right arm is a pillow and the left-hand is all scrunched up in that gorgeous baby scrunchy way. The light is coming from the side to produce soft shadows that give the picture a three-dimensional feel. This photograph would be higher on my list but the fact is—and I'm not taking anything away from this simple, elegant, perfect photograph—I think that anyone with a baby, a little patience, and my modest little recipe can take this photograph. That means you, mom. Congratulation to Marilyn and her beautiful baby. Welcome to the Top 25.</font>
<font size="14">I sent Jennifer Polk an email asking about the details of this photograph and she responded with this: "With T-ball here it's a brand new season for me to practice what I love the most, sports photography. Don't get me wrong I love still life and portraiture, but something about the moments I'm able to catch and freeze in time much like the one you're talking about that thrills me! Can July come any faster? (FOOTBALL! )" She loves the real life drama that's at every sporting event—even t-ball. Yes, real-life drama at t-ball. Sports are a microcosm of our world and some people were born to tap into the highs and lows of victory and defeat with a camera; Jennifer Polk is one of them. This boy just got a little dinged making a play to third. It hurt, but he stood up, shook it off, and stayed in the game. Jennifer had the good sense to stay there with him. The tear is breaking perfectly around his chin, but he's playing through the pain, ready to make the next out. This is a kid that plays with his heart on his sleeve, being photographed by a woman who photographs with hers equally exposed; the result is the photograph you see here. As I write this in early April, there's a woman in rural Georgia fantasizing about the first kickoff next fall. Her passion for the sporting world is infectious and delightful. But her ability to compassionately feel for little league athletes she's only casually acquainted with is much bigger than her subject matter. This is my #14. Congratulations to Jennifer Polk. We can't wait to see what you bring us from the football field in October. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_15-vanessa-vail.jpg"]
<font size="14">There are so many obvious reasons to love this photo, but I keep coming back to the father's shoes. He's decided he just doesn't care if they get a little trashed on the rocks. He's going to get down there on the beach anyway and show his boy how it's done. He doesn't even need to take his jacket off. This picture has a special place in my heart; it was one of the first photographs taken by a Facebook fan that really moved me. I knew we were onto something—almost two years ago now—when pictures like this started coming in. I remember my immediate reaction. I thought to myself that it was straight out of The Family of Man, the great and famous photo book and exhibit of the 1950's. This is a picture of fathers and sons everywhere, and not just a man and a boy in the western hemisphere someplace. Their body language is so lovely, isn't it? Vanessa's timing perfectly captured the curved arms, legs and billowing jacket of a man giving it his all. The boy's body responds, "Wow, I didn't know you could do that!" Yes, he can, and other thing you can't imagine, too. But I keep coming back to the shoes. And the suit. He's simply decided that getting a little dirty and sweaty is worth the price for this perfect, timeless moment. I don't know what Vanessa had her feet. It's fun to think she had to get out of the car and step onto the rocks in her most expensive party shoes. If that's the case, she wasn't over-dressed; the real party was on the beach and dad knew it. He'd been to that party with his father. Ranking photographs is really just an exercise in fun, isn't it? I love this picture so much, I could have put it right at the top. But I'm calling it #15. #1 sounds right, too. As with so many of the pictures in my Top 25, I could go either way. Vanessa, this picture is so delightful. I can't imagine a man in the world who doesn't think about his father when he looks at it. Thank you so much for this. I proudly place your picture in stellar company. Heartfelt congratulations. Welcome to the Top 25.[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_16-missy-shew-johnson22.jpg"]
<font size="14">If Missy Johnson didn't shoot this picture in a photo studio, it looks like she did, and that's why it's so beautiful. A photo studio is any place where you have complete control over the backgrounds and the light, and both of them are perfectly controlled here. If you've never taken a flower out of its natural environment to be photographed, please let this picture inspire you. I read once that van Gogh stared at a chair for hours before he did the first brushstroke of its still life portrait. I don't know how much time Missy spent alone with this flower before she pushed the button, but everything indicates a lot of time and thought went into it. Composition is one of the most difficult aspects of photography to teach, and this picture shows why. How could you ever tell anyone how to compose this picture? We only know it works because the photographer showed it to us. All of the angles, all of the lines, all of the negative whitespace behind the flower contribute to this beautiful shape. And because this gorgeous plant is seen in an artificial light, it feels hyper-real, more crisp. Our senses are heightened as we absorb every little nuance. As with all the pictures in my top twenty-five, this one gets better the longer you look at it. I suspect if you stared at this picture for hours you'd be a better person for it. I just looked at it for thirty minutes and I can feel its power changing me. Thank you, Missy, for that. I'm proud to put your work among the best of the best. Missy Johnson, #16.[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_17-kelly-gargac-aldrich.jpg"]
<font size="14">To be honest, I don't know they do it; the bird photographers on our Facebook page, I mean. I don't know how flowers can fly, either, but here's a spectacular photograph of one. Is there a medium that celebrates miracles more than photography? I don't think so. And I'm quite serious. If you plopped me down at Kelly's hummingbird feeder and left me alone for a couple of hours, I'm not sure I would know how to duplicate this feat. Patience has never been anywhere near my top three virtues, and you need patience in spades to produce work like this. Great nature photographers remind me of middle-school teachers. (Please bear with me on this analogy.) You need a special blend of personality, technical skill, knowledge, and sainthood to hang with this crowd and create beauty while you're at it—I'm so jealous of these people. I recall reading an interview with Roger Tory Peterson, the great bird illustrator, remarking how challenging it is to shoot a definitive bird photograph for identification. The feathers and markings and colors are so difficult to capture in a single photograph and anyone who has ever tried to photograph a flying bird will need no convincing of that. If there's a better photograph of hummingbird feet out there, I'm not sure I've seen it. In his book, A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle suggested that you can find your way back to God by looking at a bird. We have several fans on our Facebook page that regularly prove that with their cameras. Kelly Gargac Aldrich's wonderful photograph is in my Top 25 Fan Photos as a tribute to all of them. They brighten our Facebook page and our lives and I treasure the fact that they found us and regularly share their photographic miracles with us. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_18-faye-kepner.jpg"]
<font size="14">The very best dance photographs are visual choreography themselves. The lines flow and move and you can almost hear the music. There’s pageantry and color and flowers and grace. The more you look the better it gets. The very best dance photographs belong in a frame of gold and if I had one handy I’d put Faye’s picture in it right now. Everything tells us we should be able to see the faces of the three closest dancers. But there’s a reverse going on here; it’s a bit of a bait-and-switch. And that, for me, is where the art of this photograph lies. The foreground is about costumes and and bodices and necks and, then, in the background, we find out what everyone looks like. The three smaller dancers are beautifully framed by their foreground sisters; the face of the woman in the middle is carefully placed in the crook of a woman’s neck as though Balanchine himself put her there. And, yet, the focus is on the costumes close to us; we can see the gorgeous details. And, finally, in case you hadn’t noticed, you are one of the dancers. Faye has put you on stage with them. You won’t be taking a picture that looks like this when your daughter’s in the Nutcracker; you’ll be in the middle of an auditorium wishing you could be up there with your camera. But today Faye has given us the thrill of a great impressionist painting; it’s simultaneously simple and complex and bold. This is what ballerinas see and that’s why it’s number 18 on my Top 25 fan photos list. Congratulations and thank you to Maestro Faye Kepner for an exquisite performance. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_19-ashley-gallagher-mcalister-web.jpg"]
<font size="14">If you've ever needed any evidence that faces don't need to be in a picture to tell a story, feast your eyes on this. Yup, they got real dirty and it certainly seems as though a trip to the hose is in their future. But what I love about this photograph is that without any facial expressions, it's a relationship picture. The older kids seem to be protecting the diapered one in the middle. There's plenty of insecurity in this picture; look at the body language on the left. If experience has taught them anything, they know that at times like this, trouble may be around the corner. They're going to stick together; you can see it in the way they're holding hands. The two older kids—standing protectively a little closer to the camera— are letting the little one know that everything is going to be okay; mom's taking a picture, and therefore, she's not as mad as you might think. It's alright, soon she will be sitting at her computer, laughing to herself. The bolts on the wall and the detailing at the floor suggest they haven't made it into the house yet. Someone got to them just in time before they ended up mud wrestling on the sofa. Photographing semi-naked kid bodies is always going to be a thing of beauty, but when you tell a story along the way, it takes it to the next level. This picture makes me laugh. I've been those kids and I've been the one photographing those kids, and both were great fun. And I can also remember thinking that my little brothers and sister just didn't understand the implications of their actions. I would have to run interference and protect them from parental judgment. They didn't mean it, mom. They were just having fun. She knows. I love the way Ashley turned a messy moment into a beautiful moment preserved. It's why I'm so happy to put her picture in my Top 25. Great work, Ashley. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_20-dawn-hendsbee.jpg"]
<font size="14">I can't get the word cosmic out of my head when I look at this photograph—and it's funny, too. Cosmic and funny are an unbeatable combination. We don't need a garish, commercial sign randomly posting a giant question mark to remind us that life is one big mystery, but when it happens, it poetically drives the point home, doesn't it? First of all, this picture succinctly asks us why we are here and where are we going? He seems lost, she seems sadly disconnected and separated by a profoundly placed piece of punctuation. And then, there's the funny part—the sex part. Men and women will always be separated by their differences and mystified by their attraction to each other. I love how he appears to be looking at the sign and she appears to be looking at him. There's a "why you?" aspect to this picture. Elliott Erwitt, the great American photographer, is probably my all-time favorite street photographer. His pictures are funny. Not belly laugh funny, but Dawn Hendsbee funny. This could so easily be an Elliott Erwitt photograph— serious, poignant, and really, really funny. I will speak for Mr. Erwitt when I say that he would love this picture. Dawn has been inspiring the Facebook fans of How to Photograph Your Baby with her wonderful street photography for almost two years. She is constantly commenting on our world in her unique way by going for a long walks on the street alone with her camera. It's because of people like her that our page morphed from a baby site to a how-to-photograph-your-life site. I can't remember if Dawn has children, but certainly one of her babies is the street. Dawn's baby is full of pain and laughter and anger and love and question marks, just like your baby. And I have to believe, based on the body of work, that Dawn loves her baby just as much as you love yours. So many of us have been thrilled to watch Dawn grow as a photographer over these years. It's why I'm placing her world-class street photograph in a place of honor in my Top 25 Favorite Fan photographs. Heartfelt congratulations to you, Dawn, and thank you. [img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_21-alice-mcguire.jpg"]
<font size="14"> Some sunlit wood. A background of solid black. Some white lines, some black lines, and it all screams spider. How is that possible? Photography is funny that way. If you distill the world down to it's most basic elements you often create a scene of high impact and drama. To be honest, this picture is not so much about spiders; it would be difficult to ID this spider from this picture—the internet is full of "better" spider photographs. This picture is about how Alice sees the world and how we are connected to Alice by her unique vision. The privilege of showing people how you see your world in your own way is at the heart of why looking at photographs is so enriching. Would you have taken this picture that day? If you're like me, you would like to THINK you would have, but I suspect we both would have kept sipping our lemonade as the spider strolled by, if we would have even noticed our little arachnid friend in the first place. And there are practical lessons to be learned from Alice's graphic portrait. Err on the side of keeping things simple. Eliminate everything that doesn't add something. Strip things down to their the basics. This is a skill that takes practice, and I count looking at this picture as practice. Watch how other people eliminate clutter from their pictures. Imagine all of the other stuff in this spider's universe that Alice didn't show us. There is a visual discipline going on here that we can all learn something from. I love simplicity and that's why I put Alice's spider photo in the Top 25. </font>[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_22-ashley-archambo-anderson.jpg"]
<font size="14">Every once in a while a picture comes along that gets better and better the longer I look at it. There are so many great pictures that come in to the Facebook page every day but this one grabbed me pretty hard. Let me tell you all the little reasons I think this picture works so well: It’s scary and optimistic at the same time. It’s a big, big world out there and he’s getting ready to get his feet wet. The pavement at the bottom tells us that he’s left home base where life is safe, but when he got to the gravel he took his feet off the pedals and started to rethink. You can feel the tension in the little bit of his feet that you can see. We know there’s something good out there. Look at that beautiful golden light on the left. But there’s a long road in front of him and it's out of focus at the end. Who knows what’s going to happen when he gets there. He’s wearing a solid red shirt. That never hurts. Despite the fact that I always tell people not to put their subjects in the middle the rule has been broken beautifully here. All of that space around him just adds to the mystery and overwhelming size of the new world. His head is above the horizon line. The photographer wisely lowered her camera. That makes us feel his optimism or maybe it's courage or maybe it's both. In either case it feels good and we like this boy. Who among us doesn't wish we had taken this picture? It's gorgeous. But only Ashley took this photograph. She asked if there was a way to make it pop more. It needed some contrast and a little bit of saturation, but I did my best to stand back and just let it be what it already was. #22 on my all time favorites list. Great work, Ashley.[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_23.jpg"]
<font size="14">It's either early in the morning or late in the day—we can tell by the sunlight streaming in at a low angle—but in either case the little devil is getting ready to pounce and I just love him for it. Maybe I'm such a push over for this picture because I have two little boys at home. Someone will be crying soon but for now I don't care, and apparently neither did Aimee when she grabbed her camera. What a wonderful picture of boys being boys. Let's take a look at how this picture is put together. The sunlight says something about when and at the very least creates a mood. The horizontal streaks of light are such a great compositional contrast to the vertical lines of the stair railing. Notice how the boy on top is beautifully framed against the darkness of the doorframe in the background. It's exactly where he belongs. If the railing was behind him I wouldn't be showing you this picture. Both boys have some light on their faces which immediately grabs us—it makes a huge difference. I even like the clutter of toys on the far left. They hint at the chaos that's about to happen. An obvious parental reaction to this situation would be to start yelling and stop the impending disaster. But Aimee was able to step back for a moment and see the humor and the humanity of her daily life. Like all of the pictures in my Top 25, I wish I had taken it. When you're #23 you've moved in front of hundreds of wonderful pictures people have posted on our site in the last couple of years. Congratulation, Aimee. </font>[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_24.jpg"]
<font size="14">I'm the guy who's always telling amateurs to get close and then get closer. Fill the frame with the important stuff I say. Eliminate everything that doesn't belong. And that, ironically, is why I appreciate Elisa's photograph so much. Everything belongs here. She ignored my advice and did the right thing. She moved away from the subject. Knowing when to shoot an overall shot is not as obvious as it would seem. If you had been there that day with your camera you may have been tempted to get in close on the little boy and his walking stick and there may very well have been a wonderful picture to be had. But Elisa has wisely and dramatically shown us the where the boy was walking and taken us to the hill top with him. When you're in love with a little boy you can sometimes become blind to even the most incredible cloud formations. To see a great overall scene requires practice; it's what great photographers do. They're simultaneously getting in close and looking for overall shots. It's not easy. The mechanics of the composition are classic and straight forward but worthy of recognition. The rule-of-thirds is at play here in spades. The horizon line is one-third up from the bottom and the boy is roughly one-third in from the left walking into the space on the right that Elisa has thoughtfully provided him. And for me, a lifetime lover of black and white, the absense of color is only a benefit. When I suggest that you eliminate everything that isn't helping I mean everything. Color, for me, would have diminished it's timelessness. Is this picture a cliche? Absolutely. (It is afterall a picture of a little boy walking over a hill.) But it's a beautifully executed cliche and many of the best photographs are. Cliches are cliches because they work. Do not shy away from cliches. I've loved this picture since the day Elisa posted it and it's why I put it at #24 in my favorite photos by fans list. </font>[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_25_0.jpg"]
<font size="14">This is one of my standard photo–tips–guy rants: Put a sleeping baby next to a window. The light should be soft—not harsh direct sunlight. Use a dark blanket as a neutral background. Neutral means no Sesame Street characters allowed. Turn off the flash. Get close. (By that, I mean, get closer than you probably ever have with your camera.) Push the button a lot to increase the luck factor. Experiment with composition. Bringing your instruction manual to the party probably won't hurt. Push the button some more. Play. Have fun. That in a nutshell is my recipe for the most direct route to photographic satisfaction. Taking a close-up photograph of someone you love is something many amateurs never do and yet, is so incredibly simple and satisfying that I'm tingling with excitement assuming you've never done it and I've now convinced you that you should. Marilyn has executed my plan perfectly. I love everything about this photograph. Babies, I think, often look better in black-and-white than in color. Most babies have dings and scratches and blotchy spots that seem to go away when the color vanishes. So good call on the black-and-white, Marilyn. (And guess what? There are a bunch of over fifty-year-olds that look good in balck and white for the same reasons.) This composition is simple and yet so sophisticated. Look at the space between the hip and the edge of the photograph in the top right-hand corner. It's so important to have a little bit of tasty separation at the edges.Then look at the perfectly executed space between the top of the head and the left edge of the photograph. There's even a little bit of light there to show us that the space is there. And it's completely real. The right arm is a pillow and the left-hand is all scrunched up in that gorgeous baby scrunchy way. The light is coming from the side to produce soft shadows that give the picture a three-dimensional feel. This photograph would be higher on my list but the fact is—and I'm not taking anything away from this simple, elegant, perfect photograph—I think that anyone with a baby, a little patience, and my modest little recipe can take this photograph. That means you, mom. Congratulation to Marilyn and her beautiful baby. Welcome to the Top 25.</font>
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_14-jennifer-polk_0.jpg"]<font size="14">I sent Jennifer Polk an email asking about the details of this photograph and she responded with this: "With T-ball here it's a brand new season for me to practice what I love the most, sports photography. Don't get me wrong I love still life and portraiture, but something about the moments I'm able to catch and freeze in time much like the one you're talking about that thrills me! Can July come any faster? (FOOTBALL! )" She loves the real life drama that's at every sporting event—even t-ball. Yes, real-life drama at t-ball. Sports are a microcosm of our world and some people were born to tap into the highs and lows of victory and defeat with a camera; Jennifer Polk is one of them. This boy just got a little dinged making a play to third. It hurt, but he stood up, shook it off, and stayed in the game. Jennifer had the good sense to stay there with him. The tear is breaking perfectly around his chin, but he's playing through the pain, ready to make the next out. This is a kid that plays with his heart on his sleeve, being photographed by a woman who photographs with hers equally exposed; the result is the photograph you see here. As I write this in early April, there's a woman in rural Georgia fantasizing about the first kickoff next fall. Her passion for the sporting world is infectious and delightful. But her ability to compassionately feel for little league athletes she's only casually acquainted with is much bigger than her subject matter. This is my #14. Congratulations to Jennifer Polk. We can't wait to see what you bring us from the football field in October.](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/14-jennifer-polk_0.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_15-vanessa-vail.jpg"]<font size="14">There are so many obvious reasons to love this photo, but I keep coming back to the father's shoes. He's decided he just doesn't care if they get a little trashed on the rocks. He's going to get down there on the beach anyway and show his boy how it's done. He doesn't even need to take his jacket off. This picture has a special place in my heart; it was one of the first photographs taken by a Facebook fan that really moved me. I knew we were onto something—almost two years ago now—when pictures like this started coming in. I remember my immediate reaction. I thought to myself that it was straight out of The Family of Man, the great and famous photo book and exhibit of the 1950's. This is a picture of fathers and sons everywhere, and not just a man and a boy in the western hemisphere someplace. Their body language is so lovely, isn't it? Vanessa's timing perfectly captured the curved arms, legs and billowing jacket of a man giving it his all. The boy's body responds, "Wow, I didn't know you could do that!" Yes, he can, and other thing you can't imagine, too. But I keep coming back to the shoes. And the suit. He's simply decided that getting a little dirty and sweaty is worth the price for this perfect, timeless moment. I don't know what Vanessa had her feet. It's fun to think she had to get out of the car and step onto the rocks in her most expensive party shoes. If that's the case, she wasn't over-dressed; the real party was on the beach and dad knew it. He'd been to that party with his father. Ranking photographs is really just an exercise in fun, isn't it? I love this picture so much, I could have put it right at the top. But I'm calling it #15. #1 sounds right, too. As with so many of the pictures in my Top 25, I could go either way. Vanessa, this picture is so delightful. I can't imagine a man in the world who doesn't think about his father when he looks at it. Thank you so much for this. I proudly place your picture in stellar company. Heartfelt congratulations. Welcome to the Top 25.](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/15-vanessa-vail.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_16-missy-shew-johnson22.jpg"]<font size="14">If Missy Johnson didn't shoot this picture in a photo studio, it looks like she did, and that's why it's so beautiful. A photo studio is any place where you have complete control over the backgrounds and the light, and both of them are perfectly controlled here. If you've never taken a flower out of its natural environment to be photographed, please let this picture inspire you. I read once that van Gogh stared at a chair for hours before he did the first brushstroke of its still life portrait. I don't know how much time Missy spent alone with this flower before she pushed the button, but everything indicates a lot of time and thought went into it. Composition is one of the most difficult aspects of photography to teach, and this picture shows why. How could you ever tell anyone how to compose this picture? We only know it works because the photographer showed it to us. All of the angles, all of the lines, all of the negative whitespace behind the flower contribute to this beautiful shape. And because this gorgeous plant is seen in an artificial light, it feels hyper-real, more crisp. Our senses are heightened as we absorb every little nuance. As with all the pictures in my top twenty-five, this one gets better the longer you look at it. I suspect if you stared at this picture for hours you'd be a better person for it. I just looked at it for thirty minutes and I can feel its power changing me. Thank you, Missy, for that. I'm proud to put your work among the best of the best. Missy Johnson, #16.](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/16-missy-shew-johnson22.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_17-kelly-gargac-aldrich.jpg"]<font size="14">To be honest, I don't know they do it; the bird photographers on our Facebook page, I mean. I don't know how flowers can fly, either, but here's a spectacular photograph of one. Is there a medium that celebrates miracles more than photography? I don't think so. And I'm quite serious. If you plopped me down at Kelly's hummingbird feeder and left me alone for a couple of hours, I'm not sure I would know how to duplicate this feat. Patience has never been anywhere near my top three virtues, and you need patience in spades to produce work like this. Great nature photographers remind me of middle-school teachers. (Please bear with me on this analogy.) You need a special blend of personality, technical skill, knowledge, and sainthood to hang with this crowd and create beauty while you're at it—I'm so jealous of these people. I recall reading an interview with Roger Tory Peterson, the great bird illustrator, remarking how challenging it is to shoot a definitive bird photograph for identification. The feathers and markings and colors are so difficult to capture in a single photograph and anyone who has ever tried to photograph a flying bird will need no convincing of that. If there's a better photograph of hummingbird feet out there, I'm not sure I've seen it. In his book, A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle suggested that you can find your way back to God by looking at a bird. We have several fans on our Facebook page that regularly prove that with their cameras. Kelly Gargac Aldrich's wonderful photograph is in my Top 25 Fan Photos as a tribute to all of them. They brighten our Facebook page and our lives and I treasure the fact that they found us and regularly share their photographic miracles with us.](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/17-kelly-gargac-aldrich.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_18-faye-kepner.jpg"]<font size="14">The very best dance photographs are visual choreography themselves. The lines flow and move and you can almost hear the music. There’s pageantry and color and flowers and grace. The more you look the better it gets. The very best dance photographs belong in a frame of gold and if I had one handy I’d put Faye’s picture in it right now. Everything tells us we should be able to see the faces of the three closest dancers. But there’s a reverse going on here; it’s a bit of a bait-and-switch. And that, for me, is where the art of this photograph lies. The foreground is about costumes and and bodices and necks and, then, in the background, we find out what everyone looks like. The three smaller dancers are beautifully framed by their foreground sisters; the face of the woman in the middle is carefully placed in the crook of a woman’s neck as though Balanchine himself put her there. And, yet, the focus is on the costumes close to us; we can see the gorgeous details. And, finally, in case you hadn’t noticed, you are one of the dancers. Faye has put you on stage with them. You won’t be taking a picture that looks like this when your daughter’s in the Nutcracker; you’ll be in the middle of an auditorium wishing you could be up there with your camera. But today Faye has given us the thrill of a great impressionist painting; it’s simultaneously simple and complex and bold. This is what ballerinas see and that’s why it’s number 18 on my Top 25 fan photos list. Congratulations and thank you to Maestro Faye Kepner for an exquisite performance.](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/18-faye-kepner.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_19-ashley-gallagher-mcalister-web.jpg"]<font size="14">If you've ever needed any evidence that faces don't need to be in a picture to tell a story, feast your eyes on this. Yup, they got real dirty and it certainly seems as though a trip to the hose is in their future. But what I love about this photograph is that without any facial expressions, it's a relationship picture. The older kids seem to be protecting the diapered one in the middle. There's plenty of insecurity in this picture; look at the body language on the left. If experience has taught them anything, they know that at times like this, trouble may be around the corner. They're going to stick together; you can see it in the way they're holding hands. The two older kids—standing protectively a little closer to the camera— are letting the little one know that everything is going to be okay; mom's taking a picture, and therefore, she's not as mad as you might think. It's alright, soon she will be sitting at her computer, laughing to herself. The bolts on the wall and the detailing at the floor suggest they haven't made it into the house yet. Someone got to them just in time before they ended up mud wrestling on the sofa. Photographing semi-naked kid bodies is always going to be a thing of beauty, but when you tell a story along the way, it takes it to the next level. This picture makes me laugh. I've been those kids and I've been the one photographing those kids, and both were great fun. And I can also remember thinking that my little brothers and sister just didn't understand the implications of their actions. I would have to run interference and protect them from parental judgment. They didn't mean it, mom. They were just having fun. She knows. I love the way Ashley turned a messy moment into a beautiful moment preserved. It's why I'm so happy to put her picture in my Top 25. Great work, Ashley.](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/19-ashley-gallagher-mcalister-web.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_20-dawn-hendsbee.jpg"]<font size="14">I can't get the word cosmic out of my head when I look at this photograph—and it's funny, too. Cosmic and funny are an unbeatable combination. We don't need a garish, commercial sign randomly posting a giant question mark to remind us that life is one big mystery, but when it happens, it poetically drives the point home, doesn't it? First of all, this picture succinctly asks us why we are here and where are we going? He seems lost, she seems sadly disconnected and separated by a profoundly placed piece of punctuation. And then, there's the funny part—the sex part. Men and women will always be separated by their differences and mystified by their attraction to each other. I love how he appears to be looking at the sign and she appears to be looking at him. There's a "why you?" aspect to this picture. Elliott Erwitt, the great American photographer, is probably my all-time favorite street photographer. His pictures are funny. Not belly laugh funny, but Dawn Hendsbee funny. This could so easily be an Elliott Erwitt photograph— serious, poignant, and really, really funny. I will speak for Mr. Erwitt when I say that he would love this picture. Dawn has been inspiring the Facebook fans of How to Photograph Your Baby with her wonderful street photography for almost two years. She is constantly commenting on our world in her unique way by going for a long walks on the street alone with her camera. It's because of people like her that our page morphed from a baby site to a how-to-photograph-your-life site. I can't remember if Dawn has children, but certainly one of her babies is the street. Dawn's baby is full of pain and laughter and anger and love and question marks, just like your baby. And I have to believe, based on the body of work, that Dawn loves her baby just as much as you love yours. So many of us have been thrilled to watch Dawn grow as a photographer over these years. It's why I'm placing her world-class street photograph in a place of honor in my Top 25 Favorite Fan photographs. Heartfelt congratulations to you, Dawn, and thank you.](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/20-dawn-hendsbee.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_21-alice-mcguire.jpg"] <font size="14"> Some sunlit wood. A background of solid black. Some white lines, some black lines, and it all screams spider. How is that possible? Photography is funny that way. If you distill the world down to it's most basic elements you often create a scene of high impact and drama. To be honest, this picture is not so much about spiders; it would be difficult to ID this spider from this picture—the internet is full of "better" spider photographs. This picture is about how Alice sees the world and how we are connected to Alice by her unique vision. The privilege of showing people how you see your world in your own way is at the heart of why looking at photographs is so enriching. Would you have taken this picture that day? If you're like me, you would like to THINK you would have, but I suspect we both would have kept sipping our lemonade as the spider strolled by, if we would have even noticed our little arachnid friend in the first place. And there are practical lessons to be learned from Alice's graphic portrait. Err on the side of keeping things simple. Eliminate everything that doesn't add something. Strip things down to their the basics. This is a skill that takes practice, and I count looking at this picture as practice. Watch how other people eliminate clutter from their pictures. Imagine all of the other stuff in this spider's universe that Alice didn't show us. There is a visual discipline going on here that we can all learn something from. I love simplicity and that's why I put Alice's spider photo in the Top 25. </font>](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/21-alice-mcguire.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_22-ashley-archambo-anderson.jpg"]<font size="14">Every once in a while a picture comes along that gets better and better the longer I look at it. There are so many great pictures that come in to the Facebook page every day but this one grabbed me pretty hard. Let me tell you all the little reasons I think this picture works so well: It’s scary and optimistic at the same time. It’s a big, big world out there and he’s getting ready to get his feet wet. The pavement at the bottom tells us that he’s left home base where life is safe, but when he got to the gravel he took his feet off the pedals and started to rethink. You can feel the tension in the little bit of his feet that you can see. We know there’s something good out there. Look at that beautiful golden light on the left. But there’s a long road in front of him and it's out of focus at the end. Who knows what’s going to happen when he gets there. He’s wearing a solid red shirt. That never hurts. Despite the fact that I always tell people not to put their subjects in the middle the rule has been broken beautifully here. All of that space around him just adds to the mystery and overwhelming size of the new world. His head is above the horizon line. The photographer wisely lowered her camera. That makes us feel his optimism or maybe it's courage or maybe it's both. In either case it feels good and we like this boy. Who among us doesn't wish we had taken this picture? It's gorgeous. But only Ashley took this photograph. She asked if there was a way to make it pop more. It needed some contrast and a little bit of saturation, but I did my best to stand back and just let it be what it already was. #22 on my all time favorites list. Great work, Ashley.](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/22-ashley-archambo-anderson.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_23.jpg"]<font size="14">It's either early in the morning or late in the day—we can tell by the sunlight streaming in at a low angle—but in either case the little devil is getting ready to pounce and I just love him for it. Maybe I'm such a push over for this picture because I have two little boys at home. Someone will be crying soon but for now I don't care, and apparently neither did Aimee when she grabbed her camera. What a wonderful picture of boys being boys. Let's take a look at how this picture is put together. The sunlight says something about when and at the very least creates a mood. The horizontal streaks of light are such a great compositional contrast to the vertical lines of the stair railing. Notice how the boy on top is beautifully framed against the darkness of the doorframe in the background. It's exactly where he belongs. If the railing was behind him I wouldn't be showing you this picture. Both boys have some light on their faces which immediately grabs us—it makes a huge difference. I even like the clutter of toys on the far left. They hint at the chaos that's about to happen. An obvious parental reaction to this situation would be to start yelling and stop the impending disaster. But Aimee was able to step back for a moment and see the humor and the humanity of her daily life. Like all of the pictures in my Top 25, I wish I had taken it. When you're #23 you've moved in front of hundreds of wonderful pictures people have posted on our site in the last couple of years. Congratulation, Aimee. </font>](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/23.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_24.jpg"]<font size="14">I'm the guy who's always telling amateurs to get close and then get closer. Fill the frame with the important stuff I say. Eliminate everything that doesn't belong. And that, ironically, is why I appreciate Elisa's photograph so much. Everything belongs here. She ignored my advice and did the right thing. She moved away from the subject. Knowing when to shoot an overall shot is not as obvious as it would seem. If you had been there that day with your camera you may have been tempted to get in close on the little boy and his walking stick and there may very well have been a wonderful picture to be had. But Elisa has wisely and dramatically shown us the where the boy was walking and taken us to the hill top with him. When you're in love with a little boy you can sometimes become blind to even the most incredible cloud formations. To see a great overall scene requires practice; it's what great photographers do. They're simultaneously getting in close and looking for overall shots. It's not easy. The mechanics of the composition are classic and straight forward but worthy of recognition. The rule-of-thirds is at play here in spades. The horizon line is one-third up from the bottom and the boy is roughly one-third in from the left walking into the space on the right that Elisa has thoughtfully provided him. And for me, a lifetime lover of black and white, the absense of color is only a benefit. When I suggest that you eliminate everything that isn't helping I mean everything. Color, for me, would have diminished it's timelessness. Is this picture a cliche? Absolutely. (It is afterall a picture of a little boy walking over a hill.) But it's a beautifully executed cliche and many of the best photographs are. Cliches are cliches because they work. Do not shy away from cliches. I've loved this picture since the day Elisa posted it and it's why I put it at #24 in my favorite photos by fans list. </font>](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/24.jpg){kind=link}
![[img alt="" src="http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/thumbs/thumbs_25_0.jpg"]<font size="14">This is one of my standard photo–tips–guy rants: Put a sleeping baby next to a window. The light should be soft—not harsh direct sunlight. Use a dark blanket as a neutral background. Neutral means no Sesame Street characters allowed. Turn off the flash. Get close. (By that, I mean, get closer than you probably ever have with your camera.) Push the button a lot to increase the luck factor. Experiment with composition. Bringing your instruction manual to the party probably won't hurt. Push the button some more. Play. Have fun. That in a nutshell is my recipe for the most direct route to photographic satisfaction. Taking a close-up photograph of someone you love is something many amateurs never do and yet, is so incredibly simple and satisfying that I'm tingling with excitement assuming you've never done it and I've now convinced you that you should. Marilyn has executed my plan perfectly. I love everything about this photograph. Babies, I think, often look better in black-and-white than in color. Most babies have dings and scratches and blotchy spots that seem to go away when the color vanishes. So good call on the black-and-white, Marilyn. (And guess what? There are a bunch of over fifty-year-olds that look good in balck and white for the same reasons.) This composition is simple and yet so sophisticated. Look at the space between the hip and the edge of the photograph in the top right-hand corner. It's so important to have a little bit of tasty separation at the edges.Then look at the perfectly executed space between the top of the head and the left edge of the photograph. There's even a little bit of light there to show us that the space is there. And it's completely real. The right arm is a pillow and the left-hand is all scrunched up in that gorgeous baby scrunchy way. The light is coming from the side to produce soft shadows that give the picture a three-dimensional feel. This photograph would be higher on my list but the fact is—and I'm not taking anything away from this simple, elegant, perfect photograph—I think that anyone with a baby, a little patience, and my modest little recipe can take this photograph. That means you, mom. Congratulation to Marilyn and her beautiful baby. Welcome to the Top 25.</font>](http://howtophotographyourlife.com/wp-content/flagallery/top-25/25_0.jpg){kind=link}
Wow! Not sure when this was posted but I just saw it. Thanks Nick, so much. I’m sure you may already know this but if not…..it means a lot to us when you pick our pictures for your shows, for an acknowledgement or for a “top” list. Photographers that are new to this, like myself, don’t get a lot of recognition for our efforts. Competition is tough but you level the field for us. You inspire me everyday.
Beautiful photo Alice! I agree with your comments…and would add that I am also inspired by the likes of you! We all have our favorite subjects…children, grandchildren, pets, landscapes, birds, flowers, etc…but we are joined by our love of photography. I love how supportive everyone is here! I think that’s what inspires me the most! By the way, my daughter (who will be 30 in a few months) danced from the time she was three until a few years ago when she suffered a back injury. In all those years, I never got a photograph as lovely as this one! Congrats on making Nick’s top 25 list!!
I agree! Love it Alice!
Your comments have left me speechless and honored. Thank you so much for everything you said and for including my photo in your Top 25. I am sincerely flattered. You inspire me every time I pickup my camera. I deeply appreciate all of your encouragement and help!
Wow…thanks so much Nick for including my sunflower picture in your top 25. I am honored to be among all the other wonderful photographers from HTPYB/HTPYL. You and all the other photographers that post on HTPYB inspire me daily to be the best I can be. My 5 yr old daughter is so excited to see her sunflower that she planted featured on HTPYL! Thanks for all you do for your fans NICK, you totally ROCK!
These photos are wonderful! Congratulations my friends, for making the top 25. Boy what a hard job you have Nick! Inspiring photos, all of you..
I’m sorry that more people don’t comment on these. I POUR over what you’ve written, and eagerly look forward to seeing what you’ll post and write next. I know many others feel the same way – we just don’t take the time to let you know. My favorite so far is the little boy on his bike in the driveway – because that is just exactly like MY son, and I love that you put words in his head for me. Thank you, thank you! I agree with what you proclaimed today: There should be a photography teacher in every elementary school! What an incredible way we have to show what we love…through our camera lens!
The only reason I don’t leave comments here is because they don’t stick to individual photos, and it gets confusing trying to figure out which photo and words the comments are about. I definitely love this section!