Take a subject and make it art

A good portion of our pictures are good enough for our memories, but they really aren't art.

How can we change our very good pictures into photographic works of art?

One thing I like to urge my students is simply to look for another view. Change your position, change your perspective, change your lens. Play with focus tricks, make certain lighting issues stand out. Get close, get low, zoom out, pan over ...

Suppose you like birds. Ducks and geese tend to make pretty good subjects since they don't get scared and usually don't move too quickly.

In this pic, I was limited where I could move, so I zoomed in.

By zooming in tighter, I'm able to isolate the geese from the park surroundings. This also accentuates the colours in the water. Still a picture of a group of birds, but it's closer to art than a snapshot is.

Next, I play with some lighting effects.

 

I moved my position, got to a place where I could see the sun reflecting off the pond's little chops. Paid off by getting a photo of these geese in a lovely setting.

Next, I place myself where I wanted to be for one part of the photo and then WAITED for the other part I wanted to come into my area. Turned out fairly nice. Still a picture of waterfowl, but it evokes a feeling of abstract art.

So, what really makes a picture turn into a piece of photographic art? Hard to say. Also, it's different for each person. But, it's safe to say that we will rarely ever simply snap a shot that could be seen as art if we don't do a little something extra ourselves. 

Train your eye by looking at things in different ways. Train your eye by visualizing what end result you want and then use your camera and technical knowledge to make that visualization become an image file on your memory card.