Finding the Essence in Your Photograph

By Robert Rodriguez Jr

I’m sure you’re familiar with the feeling of walking into a beautiful scene that stops you in your tracks. You consider the various compositional options, you raise the camera, and suddenly it’s busier than you first imagined. There are too many highlights on the left, a tree blocking the better tree, a foreground that was…

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Composition Is the Skill You Never Stop Learning

By Robert Rodriguez Jr

When I teach composition, I start with a simple observation: the rules are the easy part. You can learn the rule of thirds or the basics of leading lines in an afternoon. What takes years to internalize is what composition actually is beneath those ideas. Here’s what I’ve come to believe, after many years of teaching composition…

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Your Camera Documents—You Interpret

By Robert Rodriguez Jr

I spent my first few years as a photographer trying to capture what was in front of me. Point the camera at the waterfall, get the exposure right, make sure it’s sharp. If everything was technically sound, I’d consider it a success. But those images felt hollow. Accurate, maybe, but not what I really wanted—and…

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