RE: Mushroom Kingdom

Thank you again for the engagement and your kind words. This was a good shot for a few reasons... but that ivy turning red was superb. For me, the composition is really important. The frame would be all you can see in your image and the composition would be how it's all arranged in your frame.

So, i guess my tip would be to imagine what you want to see and how you want to see it before you take the shot. I tend to think of how i can do less cropping and editing my making my composition more efficient. Rather than cropping off dead space around the edges... just shoot where what you want is framed to the edge.

There are professional tips or rules like the rule of thirds and other elements that lead to more interesting photos. Don't put the subject directly in the middle of the shot or frame. Compose it so that it's off-center just a bit. In the first or last third area of the image.

Headroom is pretty important and leading. Headroom is exactly what it sounds like... space around the head. Some folks don't allow much room and it can make the image feel cramped. Headroom gives some space for the imagination to guess what is out of frame and of interest to the subject.

Here is an example of not enough headroom for the lion...

Leading is where things lead the eye in and out of the photo. So, having interesting colors or shapes in the corners or edges can give more interest to the main subject as the eye is roving around the image to see what the focal point is.

Here is an example of leading and headroom. What is that lion looking at and how does the staircase direct your eye... to the lion or back out of the frame where it started from?

That last one would have been more successful if the lion was in better focus like the staircase but composition-wise it's an example of both elements. Leading is also leaving extra space or giving extra space. Think about trying to hunt a moving target. You lead your camera in this case ahead of the subject to be in the proper position in advance. If you apply that same logic to photographing... you can create the effect of motion for still things or make things in motion look still etc.

I hope that made sense. I am sure there are better explanations and technical terms... hahaha