One of the best things about digital photography is the ability to experiment at no extra cost.  As a new and learning photographer with very little patience to speak of, this is key to my creative process. 

I need to be able to try it a hundred different ways and instantly learn from it. It's just how my brain works.   If I have to wait an hour for the photo processing place, I'll forget what I was doing and in the end, learn nothing. 

I know, I'm a very rare and impatient bird.

Right now I'm really concentrating on training my eye to look at the big picture.  I have a tendency to take a shot, pull it up on my screen and realize so and so's hair is the same color as that tree in the background and therefore invisible...because I didn't take the time to frame the entire shot. 

Part of that process is looking at my photos in a not-so-normal way.  I took about 5-6 shots of the tree above.  The design in the bark really grabbed my eye and I wanted to make sure the photograph displayed what I was seeing.  When I uploaded this shot, I gasped.  The lighting is just right, the shadows are what I wanted...yada yada. 

Then I flipped it upright (the way it was "supposed to be") and all was lost.  I was so bummed.  The effect was totally gone and I almost gave up on it.

Then a few minutes later I realized it was silly to think I had to display it right side up.  If the impact is there when it's laying on it's side...then keep it that way.

And so I did. 

And because I did, I've finally learned how to see things in a different way.  Just because a tree stands vertically in nature, doesn't mean we have to view it that way.

And that goes for everything. 

So today or tomorrow, whenever you have time, take a minute to view something from a new angle.  If you're going to photograph it, consider taking your subject out of focus, or flipping them on their side...or even diagonally.  Consider your background, maybe that's actually more interesting than your subject.

Just do something different. Step outside your box.