Take a photograph that is set up perfectly, composition, lighting, scale, its all right. You take the shot and feel pleased with the outcome, but how much personal emotion went into the shot?

This is a question you should ask yourself every time you press the shutter down. For human emotion is a powerful tool to equip your images with. It avoids images taken without reason or understanding. It evokes feelings and emotions within the viewer of the photograph, and it gives the image a much greater level of meaning.

As a nature photographer, any image I take has been the result of an instinctive feel for the environment being shot. We all know that feeling you get when you reach the summit of a mountain, or when you step into the warm sea for the first time. Something within gives you a great satisfaction, a buzz that you cannot keep hold off. How incredible would it be to find a photograph that could capture that feeling and record it within an image? An image that unleashes these very emotions when viewed. This however is no easy task. It requires a photographer that is sensitive to their surroundings and understating of their subject. The images do not require being laboured over, for it should be instinctive, driven by the emotion of the taker. If it feels right, take the shot.

Of course, not everyone will see in an image what you see, and will not feel what you feel. This is unavoidable, but you do take away some of the static feel that can suffocate a photograph. Make your photos exciting, make them feel alive, make them look real, and most of all, equip them with emotions.

John Threlfall is a self-taught photographer with a deep passion for nature photography. With an upbringing in the countryside, John strives to capture his feelings and emotions within his images. John has a Masters Degree in 'Creative Imaging'. His work can be viewed at http://www.capturednature.com The images capture the pure simplistic, yet breathtaking beauty that is hidden away in rural Britain.