Tuesday Morning Photographer

Here is my latest article for the Austrian website "Laola1.at" - enjoy! ~ JJ

It's not that hard...

In American football terms, a “Monday Morning Quarterback” is a fan that gives his own opinion about what happened in the game, as if it was easy. They watch all the NFL games on Sunday, and then think they have right to be experts about the game the next day. These MMQB’s have rarely played the games themselves, and often their only form of physical activity is doing a bicep curl with a beer bottle. Typical phrases that come out of his mouth would include, “All they needed to do was…” or “That guy is such an idiot,” or my personal favorite, “I could have thrown that pass.”

Seeing as I am a real spielmacher and not a MMQB, I unfortunately don’t get to play that role. (Not that I am jealous.) Yet there is one thing that has been absolutely bothering me since I began traveling around Europe, and I can hold my breath no longer. I must say something. I must become like those legions of American football fans who offer their advice on how to do what appears to be a simple task. It is now time for me to become a “Tuesday Morning Photographer.”

Before traveling around the continent, I assumed that the average person was capable of taking a photograph. It seems everyone nowadays has a 12-megapixel device strapped to their wrist, and one can barely stand in front of the Eiffel Tower or Coliseum without being trampled by a human centipede of Nikon-toting Japanese tourists. Yet every time I ask someone to take a photo of my wife and I, it turns out horribly wrong. Usually the picture is crooked, out of focus, our heads are cut-off, or a combination of all three. It is as if the moment I hand someone my camera, they suddenly become blind. This is where the Tuesday Morning Photographer can step in.

As a Tuesday Morning Photographer, here is my advice to all fellow tourists “slash” amateur photographers – and if you follow these simple steps, I PROMISE you will take better photos:



1) 1) Try to get both people AND the monument in the photo. You have no idea how simple this is, yet difficult for most photographers to do. If there is a large monument we are all standing in front of, please include it in the background. Once I was standing in front of Big Ben in London, and I asked someone to take my picture, and the man turned his back on the tower! Did he think I just wanted a picture of me?



2) 2) Take two steps forward. Every picture needs a subject, and the vast majority of people are too far away. I don’t want to be the size of an ant in my photo. Next time you are taking a picture, compose the shot like you normally would, then take two large steps forward – it will almost always be better.



3) 3) And for the more advanced user: The best photographs are taken at “magic hour” – which is the first and last hour of sunlight of the day. Use a tripod or hard surface at night to avoid blurry pictures. And if the background (sky) is brighter than people, even during the day, than use your flash! Good luck!