Sunday, October 21, 2007

Photo Tip: Change your perspective

I have been very busy at work, and I apologize for not having a tip of the day for the past several days. However, this weekend I participated in Outdoor Leadership Training for the Boy Scouts of America and I got a ton of photos.

One of the training classes we participated in was Orienteering. After receiving our instructions, we had a challenge to take a topography map and determine the exact location of the tent we were at.

With the map on the ground, we took our compasses and tried to determine exactly where we were. I took several photos of my patrol trying to figure it out. Some were from the typical standing position, looking over shoulders. Here is probably the best one:



This shows the map, but there are no faces and the text on the back of the gray shirt is very distracting. Overall, I didn't like it as much.

I also took several shots from a ground-level angle. I literally laid on the ground on my side and shot with the camera a few inches off of the ground, and I like these more. You can see their faces clearly, there is no distracting wording, and with a caption you will know they are interacting with a map with their compasses.



When taking a shot, try to think of different angles and perspectives to capture the moment. Experiment with several ideas, even if you think it won't be comfortable or easy to do. Laying on the ground wasn't comfortable and surely wasn't easy to change my position when I needed to, but I think most would agree it resulted in a better shot. When you're all done, you can sit down and throw away the ones that didn't work.

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