Originally posted by tele_pathic I agree with what you said, and I truly respect the work you do, but Lowell gets closer to the heart of the matter. My "technical proficiency" with the camera is looking at the potential shot, auto-focusing , turning the e-dial on my
K200D until the EV meter reads either +.3, and shooting.
I don't think there's any real difference in the *substance* of what any of us are saying - it's just nitpicking about whether composition counts as being "technical" or not. The "heart" of the matter remains the same - you have mastered what you have mastered and are looking to go beyond that. I simply am uncomfortable using the term "technique" to refer to some the things you may perceive yourself to lack, but I'm not disagreeing about what you may or may not lack. If composition is one of those areas that is lacking for you - and I don't know your work, so I am not offering an opinion one way or the other there - then simply say you want to improve your composition, with no reference to the word "technique", and we'd all be in complete agreement. As it is, we're just quibbling over whether composition falls under the umbrella of "technique" or "aesthetics" (or I suppose some would quibble that these aren't mutually exclusive).
It's not really an important distinction in practice with respect your particular, and yet, it kind of is in a broader sense. Using the the phrase "technical proficiency" with respect to composition robs the subject of composition of something, I think. Hmm, I guess what I could say is that *part* of composition can be quantified and made "technical", and that's the part of composition that one can learn from books. But that's not all there is to composition, and indeed, often the more effective compositions are the ones that appear to break the "rules" of composition yet adhere to these harder-to-quantify larger principles. So even if you're getting that part of composition that can be quantified "right" from a "technical" perspective, you need to remain open to the possibility that there are other aspects of composition worth exploring.