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By George Barr

A lifetime of enjoying wonderful images has taught me a number of important lessons. One conclusion is that really wonderful images often share certain traits and that a study of these characteristics could repay us when we make our own images. I would not want to suggest that there is a formula for creating great images, but if the best images usually do things one way, perhaps we should have a good reason before we go a different direction. Further, while I am uncomfortable with calling these characteristics as rules, understanding how and why rules work can often lead you to also understanding how best to break them. I have been studying great photography for more than 40 ...

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Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Michael passed away in May 2016. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.
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