Leading lines are a great way to draw attention to the subject you want to highlight. In this case, I used the cracks in the rocks and the green scrub brush growth to lead the viewers eye to the mountain top. By also putting the mountain in the top one third of the photo, the composition is more pleasing and it gives emphasis to the leading lines of the foreground rock.  

Patience is key! I set up this shot with the camera zoomed out and rested on a railing which was close enough and high enough to get this image straight on. The female bird came back to feed her fledgling numerous times, but I was patient and kept shooting until mama turned her head just right and the fledgling’s mouth was wide open. I used the camera with the flash turned off, so that I wouldn’t startle the birds, and framed the birdhouse to the right to give the image a good balance. Keeping the subject to the left tends to lead the viewer’s eye into the shot, since we read left to right.  

I attribute the long reach of the Panasonic-LUMIX TZ3 lens along with the built in stabilization to get this shot. I also set the point-and-shoot′s LCD screen to "brightest" to be able to carefully compose the photograph in the bright sun at Yellowstone National Park. © Russ Burden, Denver DPA Instructor

Summer time brings plenty of opportunities for outdoor shooting. Check to see what special events are occurring in your area, such as this visit by the Columbian Navy tall ship to Baltimore, MD © Jon Canfield, DPA Seattle Instructor

Shooting from a plane can give you interesting views of the world. In order to avoid distortion, you need to keep the lens parallel to the window. If you have a polarizing filter, you can use this to help reduce glare. Don’t put the camera lens against the window though, because the vibration will ruin your photos. © Jon Canfield, Seattle DPA Instructor

I particularly like the Einstein Memorial at the National Academies of Science. The memorial is located on the north side of Constitution Avenue, NW, at 21st Street, Washington DC. A low camera angle often adds impact and cleans up a background. This memorial is a tactile, climb-on-able, visually interesting object that is always fun to photograph. The attached image was taken with a digital infrared camera. © 2007 Bob Blanken, Washington DC DPA Instructor From Wikipedia: The Albert Einstein Memorial is a monumental bronze statue depicting Albert Einstein seated with manuscript papers in hand. It is located in central Washington, D.C., United States, in a grove of trees at the southwest corner of the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences on Constitution Avenue, near to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The statue was sculpted by Robert Berks in 19 sections and then welded together. It weighs 7,000 pounds (3.2 metric tons) and would stand 21 feet (6.4 m) high. The statue sits on a bench that is white granite from Mount Airy, North Carolina. The statue and bench are at one side of a circular dais, 28 feet (8.5 m) in diameter, made from emerald-pearl granite from Larvik, Norway. Embedded in the dais are more than 2,700 metal studs representing the location of astronomical objects (Sun, Moon, planets, 4 asteroids, 5 galaxies, 10 quasars, and many stars) at noon on April 22, 1979 when the memorial was dedicated. The studs are different sizes to denote the apparent magnitude of the relevant object, and different studs denote binary stars, spectroscopic binaries, pulsars, globular clusters, open clusters, and quasars. Written on the papers held in the statue′s left hand are three equations, summarizing three of Einstein′s important scientific advances: the photoelectric effect: the theory of general relativity: the equivalence of energy and matter: Standing at the center of the floor patterns and speaking towards the statue produces an interesting acoustic echo.

These umbrellas and chairs caught my eye as I drove through the California beach community of Ventura. The pattern of yellow umbrellas, dark green chairs and bright sand was irresistible. Although I normally photograph beaches early and late in the day, the colorful umbrellas dictated a mid day approach using a polarizing filter to saturate the blue sky and yellow fabric. Using the compositional rule of thirds, I framed a walkway on the left side between the chairs emphasizing the perspective and leading the viewer out to the ocean. Placing the slot between the chairs off to one side makes the image much more dynamic than placing it in the center. This image is, after all, about graphic design. © 2007 Chuck Place, Los Angeles DPA Instructor

Capturing the crowd at a summer festival is one way of conveying the unforgettable energy of the event. Many times an interesting pattern can be captured in all of the faces of the crowd. © 2007 Frank Siteman, Boston DPA Instructor

In your quest for epic photographs, don’t ignore what’s directly in front of you. Even a pair of wet jeans drying on a porch beam can offer a chance at great expression. As photographers, we tend to ignore the everyday world and keep our attention on spectacular vistas, epic sunsets, and floral scenes. Rubbish! In this image, a strong perspective and good composition transform the everyday into something much more rich. The colors in the image are reduced to two: green and blue. The shadows on the jeans set up a strong diagonal line that gets reinforced by the puffy white clouds. Minding the negative space keeps the eye moving around the jeans much like the gentle breezes these pants flew in. The best ideas are sometimes right nearby.     © 2007 Rick Wright, Philadelphia DPA Instructor