Tuesday, June 8, 2010

From My Perspective

Perspectives are weird things.  Depending on your perspective, things can look very different, be it in unimportant things like religion or politics, or in the really important stuff, like photography.  Being in the right place at the right time, being willing to engage your model, and not feeling bound to conventional poses can help you capture truly compelling images of your subject, and in some cases, can even help you to capture the essence of their personality.

Case in point is a photo by my friend Anna of my friend Grace:

4654565049_3337c396f4_bGrace is a delightfully quirky young woman with a playful side, and this photo captured that perfectly.  My own attempt (below) caught some of that playfulness, though not nearly as dramatically as the image above

4654564743_b58f2a656d_b

By snapping the photo of Grace lurching at the camera, Anna used her perspective to really capture Grace’s playfulness, and made a better image. 

Meanwhile, feeling inspired by the interesting perspectives one sees when multiple photographers are hanging out with each other, I tried a couple of experiments myself:

4654564897_31ebdf79dd_b Here Anna takes her leisure on the grass.  4654564865_fec8f430fb_bAnd here’s Brandon, taking his leisure on a lawn chair.

Portraiture has a lot of good guidelines, but occasionally, stepping out of the lines and trying something new will yield a surprising and fun result.  So shake things up occasionally; you never know what you’ll discover.