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Founded in 1985 by Tony Fleming, a man with the skills of an engineer and the eye of an artist. During the past 30 years, Fleming motor yachts have evolved into what many experts consider “the ultimate cruising yacht.”

Aphotograph is art. If you like it, nothing else matters. But four simple elements can drastically improve your art and make your photographs pop. It’s not hard to do, it just takes a little practice. Best of all, there is nothing new to buy, because any camera, iPhone-users included, can take amazing pictures. In fact, all of these practices can be done with your camera phone. The keys to any stellar photograph are: composition, light, exposure, and editing. COMPOSITION: How do you compose? Tell a story. The benefit of good light, exposure, and editing in your pictures is lost if there is no story to tell.

Frame the photograph purposefully. Balance the elements. When in doubt, get closer and isolate the subject. The photo of a Heron on page 84 (figure 4) is a strong example of how composing objects, aside from the subject, into an image can help illustrate a larger storyline. In this example including the orange, setting sun not only serves to make the Heron’s portrait more dramatic, but it tells the viewer both what time of day and alludes to the waterfront environment the image was taken. Not only does this potentially educate the viewer of the setting and place, but alos tells you something about where a Heron might be seen.

LIGHT: Good light is not the same as good exposure (the next step). In nature photography especially, good light is usually soft, warm, gentle, even, and is found outside during the “Golden Hour” between sunrise and sunset. This light produces powerful images, and mid-day light produces hot, high-contrast images,

even if the subject and setting is the same. Overcast, damp day? Go take pictures. Bright sunny day? Stay home or find ways to soften that harsh mid-day light. This picture of Karen driving our dinghy, taken in overcast light late in the day, is soft and produces no harsh shadows (Figure 3).

EXPOSURE: Good exposure lets the perfect amount of light hit the sensor, so shadows are not too dark (faces are visible under a hat brim), and the highlights are not too bright (the boat deck is not burned white with no detail). Important point: the camera can’t “see” the detail in shadow and in bright spots that your eye can.

You must make adjustments in composing the picture so these areas are visible in the photograph. Stay away from harsh