What do you call a natural gathering of photogs? A ‘glimpse’, a ‘snap’, a ‘capture’ – a ‘click’ perhaps? OK, photographers. A targeted joke?
If you want an impact, connect your viewer with the shot.
The appeal of a photograph is a numbers game. Not everyone is going to be interested in it. For a photograph to have impact it needs to reach out to people in some way.
It does not matter how good you feel about your photograph, except to you. It is ultimately the audience that judges its appeal on a wider basis. Not everyone is going to be interested in all your shots. It’s a cliché perhaps. Nevertheless, there has to be something that connects your viewer to the shot. There are many ways that you can help connect your audience to the shot. A combination of these or even one strong reason will attract an audience. If you don’t have a connection you have nothing…
Targeting
Photographers, especially amateurs, like pictures for the sake of pictures and often share them with people who feel the same. Not everyone feels that way. If we want to have a wider impact then we need to target the shot to an audience. Producing a picture because you like it is a great idea. If it gives you pleasure then you can be satisfied with your work. However, for many of us, we want our picture to be seen by a wide audience. To reach that audience you need to take pictures that have an appeal to that audience. You may even need to go out and push it to where that audience will see it – publications, websites, whatever… yes, do some marketing. No matter how much marketing you do, some pictures will not make it big. So, target your shot to a defined audience. One that will find it appealing.
By way of a little amusement I included the photograph above. To most people it will be of little real appeal. However, to photographers it will have some comical relevance. Since most of my readers are photographers this picture is highly targeted. I hope it makes the point. Some things only work for certain audiences.
Composition
