Speaker: Greg Holden

Topic: Composition - Beyond the Rules

Brief Bio:

“Photography is my way of sharing with others how I see the world around me and provides me with an artistic escape from my day job as an aerospace engineer. My photos are mainly from adventures traveling the US and hiking in various parks, where I enjoy the challenge of finding interesting shapes and juxtapositions in nature and making the most of situations I discover.

I find that the little scenes often overlooked by others are the ones that fuel my photographic creativity. I am always looking beyond the obvious and photographing the things that others might not even notice like an acorn sprouting, the patterns made by rust and faded paint on an old automobile, or textures in the windblown sand on a local beach. Sometimes the most amazing images are right there under your feet.

I enjoy teaching others and sharing my passion and I am available to speak or judge at your camera club. I have been praised for my constructive critiques and ability to tailor my feedback to different levels of photographers.“

Presentation Overview:

While classic compositional aids such as ‘rule of thirds’ or the ‘golden spiral’ are a good starting point for composing your photos, strict adherence to these rules may not always yield the best composition.  In this presentation, Greg Holden will discuss how he assesses a scene, determines key elements, intersections and what final composition choices he makes that emphasize the subject while also creating harmony amongst the supporting elements. 

Greg breaks down several of his photos to describe the key considerations he made when composing the image and show how they may or may not align with formulaic compositional guides.  

He also discusses the additional cropping decisions made in post-production, including when to use alternate aspect ratios than the 2x3 that most of our cameras produce.