Has this ever happened to you? It's a beautiful day, late afternoon sunlight is making everything glow, and you're anxious to take your camera and make some pictures. You head outside, but no matter where you look nothing of interest catches your eye. This is the perfect time to challenge yourself. When the wider view holds no interest, think smaller and closer—look for the details. For this exercise you will need one of the following: a Micro NIKKOR lens for shooting extreme close-ups; a NIKKOR zoom lens that can focus on a subject close up; or a COOLPIX camera that has a close-up mode.

Most towns have a tennis court in the local park or at a school, so let's start there. An empty tennis court is not a very photographically interesting place, at least not at first glance. Start by looking for the graphics, lines and patterns created by light and shadow or by the physical properties of the place. Tennis courts are full of lines. Look at the places where the lines meet; find the contrasts of color, light and dark. Is there a practice wall with a white line painted on it? Try capturing those lines from an unusual angle.
Now look around at the surface of the court itself. Maybe there's something interesting there. How about that pile of leaves in the corner? Can you find a way to make an interesting composition using a single leaf and the shadow of the net falling across it? Try shooting straight down on the subject and then from a different angle, closer to the ground.
Are there any balls lying around? If you look, especially outside the courts, you can probably find one or two. See what you can do with it. Try wedging it in the net, or put it next to one of the lines. Again, look for the different possible angles. Work it until you find something that pleases you.
Hold your camera up to your eye and move it slowly around the scene in front of you. Narrowing your focus this way can help you to identify details that you might not see when you're looking at the whole picture—like that windscreen for instance. See how the soft light accentuates the folds of the fabric. Shadows and the patterns they create can be great subject matter.
What about the benches around the court for spectators? Can you photograph them from an interesting angle that shows only a portion of them and focuses more on the graphics of their slates than the entire bench? Can you add something to them to give them more interest, a prop of some kind? Experiment with what's at hand.
And don't forget to walk around the outside of the courts as well. You may find something that has nothing to do with tennis but is still worth a picture. Maybe it's just a tuft of grass catching a bit of late day light. Looking for the details is a great way to find pictures when nothing else seems to be working. It's one of those times when simplifying can be rewarding.

Quick Tips for Close-up Photography

  • Make sure to center the AF point exactly on the subject of your photo.

  • Use a small aperture, say f/5.6 or f/8 so that the depth of field will render the subject in sharp focus.

  • Activate the VR image stabilization feature of your NIKKOR lens or COOLPIX camera to reduce camera shake and get a sharp image.