Think before you shoot
Before you accuse me of insulting your intelligence, let me say this - people may not do something even when they know it. Everyone knows that smoking or overeating is bad, yet we continue to do it at the risk of our health and well-being. Likewise, everyone knows that thinking before acting is the wise choice, yet many of us choose to forgo the mental aerobics and simply shoot without thinking.
Automation has relieved us of many tasks, but unfortunately thinking is not one of them. Thinking involves making conscious choices at many stages, from the choice of film and lens, to the exposure and composition. Like said before, thinking will increase the probability of making a better image on the same piece of film. Since your aim in photography (I assume) is to take better images, why not exercise some thinking before you shoot, to turn a average picture into a great one ? For example, thinking about what you want to emphasize in the picture will result in you searching for a better viewpoint. Takes only a second for so, but it makes a big difference. It gets easier everytime you think, and may even become second-nature.
http://www.nelsontan.com/articles/spirit.html
Pre-visualize a photograph
Visualizing photographs that you would like to take someday is a healthy, pleasurable and educational exercise for photographers of all skill levels. At present I have six pre-visualized bird images that I would love to capture on film. I call these my “vision birds” and they exist only in my imagination and sketchbooks. For each of these images I have the composition, pose and behavior, lighting and exposure values all figured out. All I need to do is put myself in the right situation for the opportunity.
You may wonder what there is to think about when trying to pre-visualize a photograph. In my preening great egret shot it is a bird, a pose, and some vegetation. Not much to think about, right? Wrong. For that shot, here are some of the things I thought about and solved way before the opportunity presented itself: was the texture of the feathers shiny or rough? How will that look on film? Aside from the wing stretch, what does the bird look like? Is it looking at the camera or preening or looking elsewhere? How does that cause the sun to fall on its head and face? What is in the background and how light or dark is it? What are the other elements I want in my picture? What kind of exposure compensation should I use and how much? What kind of film? Should I shoot in early or late light?
http://www.gloriahopkins.com/visualizing_photographs.html
I Think, Therefore, I Am a Photographer
Does the act of taking a picture actually define whom we are? I hope not. If that were true, then millions of us would be defined by a hodgepodge of random thoughts and directions, some in focus, and some out. Instead, I think the act of taking a picture helps define whether someone is a real photographer or just a picture-taker. To me, a real photographer is someone who thinks about the shot before he or she takes it, even if for a split second. Thinking photographers are members of an evolved subset of the species “takepictorus”, which is mostly made up of folks who point a camera this way or that and press the shutter button.
http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=5&article_id=1917
The Art of Seeing
How do you see the world around you? Do you often see what others miss or are you inclined to miss what others see? You are not alone if the art of seeing has escaped you! As is often the case, most photographers have no idea how to interpret the world around them. Trying to get it all into a single frame is part of the problem. The other part is not knowing the vision of your lenses, as well as being averse to considering different points of view.
http://www.ppsop.com/seee.aspx
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