For someone interested in movies and directing in particular I have taken up on photography rather late. Nonetheless I enjoy it a lot now and you can see some of my photos in my photo gallery.
I will use this page to dump some tips I picked up or some random remarks. Some of them are sometimes refered to as rules - of course none of these should be followed blindly, but I have used them with success so they might be of some use for others.
- When photographing animals, always get down at eye-level with them (or up if you happen to live somewhere where there are taller animals than dogs ;) ). It's amazing how much more empathy a picture carries when shot at eye-level.
- If you have an SLR camera: buy a fixed focal length lens. My 50 mm lens (which on my digital camera is approx. comparable to a 80 mm lens on a normal 35 mm film camera) is by far my favorite lens. The footwork you have to do because you can't simply zoom in or out is one of the best examples of how constraints act in your favor in art. The second good thing is that they are usually several f-stops faster than their zoom equivalents - this means that you can shoot with available light where you would need a flash with a zoom lens.
- Go back and forth between shooting every picture you see and constraining yourself to only a very low number of shots. Both methods can teach you a lot - owning a digital camera I was more at home with the first category, but during my big journey last year I ran out of pictures - I was forced to think about the value of every picture because I knew it could be my last. It was one of the most instructive experiences I have ever had. I heard the opposite from people who started with film, so I can only suggest you try the opposite of what you're used to.