How do you create a photogragh?

How do you create a photograph?

First you need an idea.

This can be a thought out, mapped out plan with a crew... or this can be an exploration of the space or scene you just stumbled upon.

Clicking the shutter with out an idea of what you are going to capture can create some marvelous mistakes...but most of the time they are crap that should never be seen again ( I have a lot of those taking up space on hard-drives...)

This requires previsualization.

"what is this going to look like?" 

This is where CDE comes into play...
C--- composition
D--- depth of field
E--- exposure

Conversation you should have with yourself:
Why do I want to bother creating this image?

" I like the look of this flower"

So how are you going to compose the shot so that the flower is the main subject.. the story of the image?

" I will move close so the flower takes up most of the image, and I will put it off it in the centre"

How about the background?

" I want the background blurred, so that it does not distract from the flower so a small Depth of field ( f 2)"

So what is your exposure?

" I want to shoot at f2 which gives me a shutter speed of 1/60, which I can hand hold for"

and then you create the image