Travel Photography Tips | Finding The Best Composition

© 2014 Wazari Wazir | Buffalo at Bario | Sarawak

Sometimes what separate good photograph from the bad one is the composition. From the main road, what will catch your eyes is the last photograph, there were a woodshed behind the buffalo, that background is not a good background. Too cluttered to make the buffalo standout, I almost never took the shot but I just took it, so I can make a comparison to my blog readers. On the right side of the woodshed is a beautiful background, if I choose the right composition, I can make the buffalo to stand out against the beautiful background covered by thick mist.

Whenever you face with this kind of situation, just look around, maybe you can find something interesting to make your subject standout. In this series of photograph, my intention is to show you the misty morning environment here and the buffalo is great subject to be included to show that this is somewhere taken  in a countryside, far from the bustling city centre.

The other thing about the composition is that, for this kind of situation, it is best not to take a tight shot, yes you can single out the buffalo to fills the frame (maybe to make a stock photo of buffalo) but to really  show the misty atmosphere, it is best to give more room in the frame. Give more space for the environment. Actually what really attract me to photograph the buffalo is because the misty environment, without the misty environment, it will be just an ordinary picture.

Other than composition, it is best to scout around the area that you intend to photograph thoroughly, so that you can identify a potential  location and then decided which is the best time to photograph them. Some place look great at sunset, some look great in the late afternoon and some other place like this one look great in the early morning. All of the photograph above were taken somewhere around 6:45 am to 7 am, using 24-70 mm lens. While some people are still dreaming, the photographers has already start hunting.