If your photos feel "meh" and you don't know why, the best way to improve them is by understanding your mistakes.

And I'm like you - I've taken my fair share of "meh" photos with my iPhone camera. And for years I just lived with it.

Until one day, I decided I needed a change. I decided I would start using my phone camera with more intention.

That's when everything changed.

I can now look back at my bad photos and see where I had gone wrong and what I did to improve them. Let me show you.

First, a very relevant quote from Rick:

Remember: it's ok to lament over your bad photos. But not to the point of giving up... rather, to the point of motivating yourself to understand your mistakes so you can improve.

Let's look at my mistakes:

The mistake in that first photo is that I got so excited about the "idea" of a sunset that I just took the photo without thinking about elevating it for my viewers. First of all, there are no clouds in the sky, leaving me with a much more boring sky and a lot of dead, empty space in my photo.

Second of all, the "idea" of a sunset reflection in water is great -- but I did not use a perspective that would amplify it. Instead, I stood at eye level, a little too far from the water, so that the area where the sun is reflected in the water is barely visible.

Again, the "idea" of having a reflection is a good one, but I didn't change my perspective or angle to magnify that view for my viewers.

As for the sun - which should be the main star of the image - I've placed it at the far edge of my frame in an area that is not at all considered a visually appealing placement of a primary subject.

And finally - the photo was not edited! I shot it in camera and whatever algorithm my iPhone camera decided to apply to the photo is what I got as a result. There is zero personal touch added from me, and that is why the photo falls flat.

Now let's look at what makes the second photo such a success:

First of all, if you noticed, I'm not taking a photo of a sunset, instead, this is just a photo taken at sunset. This photo is actually facing the East sky, the opposite side of the sky where the sun is setting. This is a significant note.

That's because when I first looked at the sunset in the West sky, about to take a shot, I scanned the frame to see if it was compelling. Not so much - it just looked like a cliché sunset. No clouds, nothing really interesting on the ground.

So I did not take the shot.

Instead, I turned my body 180 degrees, and I noticed a spectacular sight in the sky. There were dramatic clouds, stretching into space, with what I found super interesting: the clouds being hit by the incredible orange glow of the sunset!

That's not something we're used to seeing, so this is what makes the photo more compelling. Plus a touch of the reflection in the pond water, and that's when I knew I had a winning shot.

And notice how I took it into Lightroom Mobile and edited it to make sure I amplified the colours in the sky and water, but also the texture and luminosity of the grass (which is to me the third most interesting element in my frame. Not to be ignored!).

By doing this, I polished up the photo and made it look less like a spur of the moment phone shot, with not much thought or intention put into it.

So let's reflect on my mistakes and my solutions:

I did not need to upgrade my camera in order to upgrade my photo. The improvements were simply:

1. better composition
2. better angle / positioning
3. better analysis of what subject is most interesting
4. better photo editing

Next time you're out there looking to take a more interesting photo, take an extra moment to think about whether or not the better shot is happening 180 degrees behind you.