Martyn Hill Photography

06/09/2026

THE STORY OF COMPOSITION.

Why the way you arrange a photograph matters

Imagine this…

You’re standing on a cliff above the ocean just before sunset.
The sky is on fire — gold, orange and purple spilling across the horizon. Waves are exploding against the rocks below. A lone seabird crosses the frame, perfectly lit by the last light of the day.

You lift your camera.
You take the photograph.
And when you look at the screen…
Something is missing.
The scene was breathtaking.
But the photograph isn't.

That is the moment you discover one of photography's most important truths:

A beautiful scene does not automatically make a beautiful photograph.
The camera records everything in front of it.
Composition is how you decide what deserves to be seen.

1. RULE OF THIRDS — GIVE YOUR SUBJECT ROOM TO BREATHE

Imagine photographing a lighthouse standing against a dramatic sunset.
Put it dead centre and the photograph can feel static.
Move it towards a third of the frame, allowing the ocean and sky to occupy the rest, and suddenly the image has somewhere to go.
The viewer's eye begins to travel.
The Rule of Thirds isn't a law.
It's a starting point.
Don't just put your subject where the camera happens to point. Decide where it belongs.

2. LEADING LINES — TAKE THE VIEWER ON A JOURNEY

Picture a wooden boardwalk disappearing towards the horizon.
Your eye naturally follows it.
That's the power of a leading line.
A road.
A river.
A fence.
A shoreline.
A row of trees.
These lines become invisible arrows, quietly directing your viewer through the photograph.
Good composition doesn't just show the viewer a scene. It takes them somewhere.

3. FRAMES WITHIN THE FRAME — CREATE A WINDOW

Now imagine looking through a dark cave onto a glowing beach beyond.
The cave surrounds the landscape like a natural picture frame.
Suddenly the viewer isn't just looking at the scene.
They're looking through something to discover it.
Branches, arches, doorways, windows and rocks can all become frames.
They add depth, context and mystery.
Sometimes the best way to make the world outside more interesting is to hide part of it.

4. SYMMETRY & PATTERNS — FIND ORDER IN CHAOS

Look at a reflection on perfectly still water.
The mountain above.
The mountain below.
Almost perfectly mirrored.
Our brains love patterns.
They create rhythm, balance and harmony.
But patterns can also be broken.
Imagine a hundred identical shapes — and one thing that doesn't belong.
That's where the eye goes.
So when you're photographing, don't just look for interesting subjects.
Look for repetition, rhythm and the moment something breaks the pattern.

5. NEGATIVE SPACE — SOMETIMES LESS SAYS MORE

A tiny bird flying across a huge blue sky.
A lone tree surrounded by mist.
A person standing beside an enormous landscape.
There may be very little in the frame.
And yet the photograph can feel powerful.
Why?
Because empty space isn't necessarily empty.
It gives the subject room to breathe.
It can create loneliness, freedom, peace or scale.
Don't be afraid of empty space.
Sometimes what you leave out is just as important as what you include.

6. DEPTH & LAYERS — MAKE THE PHOTOGRAPH FEEL REAL

Here's the difference between looking at a photograph...
…and feeling like you could step inside it.
Imagine standing on a mountain trail.
A flower is close to you.
The trail winds through the middle distance.
Beyond it, mountains disappear into the mist.
Foreground. Middle ground. Background.
Three layers can transform a flat photograph into a three-dimensional story.
Suddenly the viewer isn't just looking at a mountain.
They're standing in the landscape.

7. CHANGE YOUR ANGLE — CHANGE THE STORY

Here's a simple experiment.
Photograph a flower standing in a field.
Take one photograph standing normally.
Now get down on the ground.
Suddenly the flower towers against the sky.
Same flower.
Same camera.
Same location.
Completely different photograph.
Get low.
Get high.
Move sideways.
Get closer.
Look behind.
Change your perspective.
Because sometimes you don't need a better subject.
You just need a better viewpoint.

8. ISOLATE YOUR SUBJECT — LET THE STAR BE THE STAR

A lion surrounded by tangled vegetation can disappear into its environment.
But isolate that face against a soft, uncluttered background…
…and suddenly you can't look anywhere else.
This is where aperture, distance and background all work together.
Remove distractions.
Simplify.
Give your subject space.
If everything is important, nothing is important.
Make one thing the star.

9. USE COLOUR & TONE — MAKE THE IMAGE FEEL SOMETHING

Colour isn't just decoration.
It creates emotion.
Warm golden light can feel inviting.
Cool blue tones can feel quiet and distant.
Strong contrast can create drama.
A splash of red in an otherwise muted scene can become the visual heartbeat of the photograph.
Before pressing the shutter, ask:
“What do these colours make me feel?”
Because sometimes the viewer won't remember exactly what they saw…
but they'll remember how the photograph made them feel.

10. LOOK FOR THE DETAILS — THE BIG STORY IS OFTEN SMALL

We naturally look for the big picture.
The mountain.
The animal.
The sunset.
But sometimes the photograph hiding in front of you is much smaller.
A drop of water hanging from a leaf.
The texture of weathered wood.
Footprints in wet sand.
Light catching an eye.
The tiny details that most people walk straight past.
Look closer.
Because photography teaches us something wonderful:
The more carefully you look, the more there is to see.

THE 5-SECOND CHECK

Before you press the shutter, stop for five seconds.
Look at your:

LIGHT
Is it helping the photograph?

SUBJECT
What am I actually showing?

BACKGROUND
Is anything distracting me?

COMPOSITION
Can I arrange this better?

FOCUS
What does the viewer need to notice first?

Then take the photograph.
But don't stop there.
Move.
Change your angle.
Get closer.
Step back.
Wait.
Look again.
Take another.

AND THAT IS THE REAL SECRET OF COMPOSITION

The world doesn't come neatly composed.
A mountain doesn't know about the Rule of Thirds.
A bird doesn't know where your leading line is.
A sunset doesn't care about negative space.
You have to find the photograph inside the scene.
That's what composition really is.
It's taking the chaos of the world — light, colour, shapes, movement and emotion — and deciding what story you want to tell.
And eventually, something changes.
You stop looking at a landscape and thinking:
“That's beautiful.”
Instead, you start thinking:
“I know exactly how I want to photograph that.”

That's the moment you stop simply taking pictures...
…and start making photographs.

Don't just record what was there.

Show us what you saw.

Take the composition story further

06/09/2026

Before You Press the Shutter
There is a moment every photographer knows.
You see it.
The light is glowing across the mountains. A bird suddenly catches the morning sun. Waves are rolling through a rocky channel. A person turns their head at exactly the right moment.
Your heart says, “Take the shot!”
Your finger reaches for the shutter.
But here’s the thing…
Seeing a great photograph and making a great photograph are two very different things.
You can own the best camera in the world and still come home with ordinary pictures.
Because photography isn't really about the camera.
It's about the decisions you make in the few seconds before you press the button.
That is why these ten points matter.

1. CHECK THE LIGHT
Photography begins with light.
Before you worry about settings, lenses or megapixels, look at where the light is coming from.
Is it soft and warm, or hard and harsh? Is your subject beautifully illuminated, or disappearing into shadow?
Early morning and late afternoon can transform an ordinary scene into something magical.
The camera doesn't create the light. It only records what the light gives you.

2. CHOOSE YOUR SUBJECT
Now stop.
Look.
Ask yourself:
“What am I actually photographing?”
Sometimes we see a beautiful landscape and try to photograph everything.
The result is often a picture where nothing really stands out.
Find the reason you stopped.
The bird.
The mountain.
The person.
The wave.
The tree catching the light.
Give the viewer somewhere to look.

3. COMPOSITION
Once you've found your subject, decide how you want to tell its story.
Don't automatically put everything in the middle.
Move.
Look for leading lines, patterns, symmetry and natural frames. Try the Rule of Thirds.
Sometimes moving just two metres to the left can turn a cluttered photograph into a powerful one.
Your feet are often your most useful photographic equipment.

4. WATCH THE BACKGROUND
This is where many good photographs go wrong.
You have found the perfect subject. You have the light. You have the composition.
But behind it…
There's a rubbish bin.
A branch.
A telephone pole.
A bright patch of sky.
Something that shouldn't be there.
Before pressing the shutter:
STOP → LOOK AROUND → SIMPLIFY.
Sometimes the best photograph isn't created by changing your camera settings.
It's created by taking one step sideways.

5. SHUTTER SPEED
Now think about movement.
A wave crashing against the rocks.
A bird taking flight.
A runner.
A waterfall.
Your shutter speed decides how that movement appears.
Slow it down and movement becomes a blur.
Speed it up and suddenly you freeze a moment that your eyes barely had time to see.
You're not simply choosing a shutter speed. You're choosing how the viewer experiences movement.

6. APERTURE
Now decide what deserves to be sharp.
A flower with a soft, dreamy background?
Open the aperture.
A sweeping landscape where the foreground and distant mountains need to hold together?
Stop it down.
Aperture isn't just a technical setting.
It controls what you reveal and what you allow to disappear.

7. ISO
Then comes the light you don't have.
Clouds roll in.
The sun disappears.
The evening gets darker.
ISO gives your camera more sensitivity to the available light.
Keep it as low as practical when you can, but don't be afraid to raise it when the moment matters.
Because sometimes a little noise is better than no photograph at all.
A technically imperfect photograph of an unforgettable moment is still an unforgettable photograph.

8. EXPOSURE
Now the three big controls come together:
SHUTTER SPEED + APERTURE + ISO
Together, they determine your exposure.
But here's the important part:
Don't simply let the camera decide what is "correct."
A sunset may need to be darker to preserve its mood.
A person's face may need more light.
A bright scene may need to be pulled back.
Exposure isn't about making the photograph mathematically correct.
It's about making it look the way you want the moment to feel.

9. FOCUS ON THE EYES
Then comes connection.
If you're photographing a person or an animal, the eyes are usually where that connection happens.
You can have perfect light.
Perfect exposure.
Perfect composition.
But if the eyes are soft, the photograph can lose its impact.
Sharp eyes can make a photograph feel alive.
For landscapes, be equally deliberate about where you focus.
Don't simply leave everything to the camera.
Tell it what matters.

10. TAKE THE SHOT — THEN TAKE ANOTHER
And finally…
Don't walk away after the first photograph.
That first frame is simply your introduction.
Now change something.
Get closer.
Get lower.
Move left.
Move right.
Change the angle.
Try vertical.
Try horizontal.
Zoom in.
Wait.
Watch the light.
Then take another.
Because sometimes the first photograph shows what you saw…
…but the fifth photograph shows what you felt.

THE 5-SECOND CHECK
And that's why, before you press the shutter, give yourself just five seconds.
LIGHT
Where is it coming from?
SUBJECT
What am I actually photographing?
BACKGROUND
Is anything distracting me?
COMPOSITION
Can I make this stronger?
FOCUS
Is the important part sharp?
Then…
Take the shot.

And here's the part I want every photographer to remember:
You don't need the newest camera.
You don't need the most expensive lens.
You don't need another piece of equipment.
You need to slow down long enough to see.
Because the greatest upgrade you can make to your photography isn't found in a camera shop.
It's the five seconds between seeing the moment and pressing the shutter.
And one day, without even thinking about it, you'll stop taking photographs…
…and start seeing them before they happen.
That's when photography changes.
Better photos. More memories. Bigger adventures.

02/09/2026

Contact our tour company Stof-fel Tours if you would like the opportunity to take photos like these or something similar

Two images taken at the end of August 2015 in andBeyond Travel in Phinda Private Game Reserve in Northern KZN

02/09/2026

Bird photography is mostly learning how many ways a branch can become the main subject.

31/08/2026

SPRING HAS SPRUNG AT STOF-FEL TOURS!

Ready to Explore More. Stress Less. this spring? Take advantage of our limited-time Spring Sale on Camp Ready vehicles and discover more of beautiful South Africa from behind the wheel.

Double Cab 4-Sleeper – perfect for couples, families or friends
Single Cab 2-Sleeper – ideal for two adventurers:
Fully equipped Camp Ready vehicles
Valid for South Africa check-outs
Vehicle Check-out dates: 1 September – 31 December 2026
Booking Dates: 27 August - 31 October 2026
Limited-time offer – subject to vehicle availability

Whether you're planning a Garden Route road trip, South African camping adventure, wildlife escape or scenic self-drive holiday, Stof-fel Tours makes getting out there easy.

For bookings contact Martyn:
+27 (0)65 896 2662
[email protected]

Don't just travel South Africa — experience it.
Explore More. Stress Less.

29/08/2026

24/08/2026

Some photo's taken this afternoon while on a friends boat with Stof-fel Tours

-feltours