This week is much lighter... in case you are still digesting last week's post! This is something any camera user can do. You don't need a fancy SLR and all the cool lenses to get a better perspective. Sometimes it's just about moving around a little.

For example, this shot is typical of what you might get when you grab your camera to shoot your cute little kiddo:

You are standing there with the camera shooting down at them and you get them in the picture but that may be all you get from the image. Sometimes shooting from this perspective is perfect but most of the time (especially with shots like this) it is not the best. He is not likely going to face you for you to get the shot you want, he's busy inspecting this great big world. Besides, even if he did, he'd look like a BobbleHead on a tiny body. You know those pics, right?

Change your point of view. We know how things look in real life and sometimes don't think that people are at odd angles, we don't "see" it that way. We don't see big heads on little bodies because we know they don't look like that in real life. But our cameras capture things we don't necessarily see as our minds see. Learning this changes your view of things and then you can start seeing things differently in your viewfinder and start capturing things the way you want to capture them.

I suggest getting down and dirty. Well, at least down. And sometimes dirty. Don't be afraid to get down on the floor to get the shot. I felt funny doing that for a while but now I don't care that my neighbors think I'm nuts seeing me crawling around in the grass, stalking the kids. I get the shots I love and will have them rest of our lives. Besides, they already know we are strange. I mean really, we have a huge, blue New Holland Tractor in our yard this morning and we live in town. (More about that soon - the neighborhood kids are going to LOVE our house when they wake up and see this! haha!)

Back to topic...

Here I shot little man from a different perspective and its much more interesting to look at:

You get his face and his cute little baby way of sitting. The lines of the cabinets in the background are nice and neat and not at odd angles. And no BobbleHead!

I think this tells a better story. It tells the same as the first - who it is but now also how he looks sitting there, how little he is. By placing him more in the bottom of the image, he somehow seems smaller because well, he is. And I want to remember him just like that. Also, it's more interesting to look at an image when the subject is not dead center in the image. Sometimes it works, but it depends on the image and what message you are trying to convey. More on composition another time.

So your homework this week is to review last week's overly long/indepth post (lol) and to get a new perspective on things. You may feel silly doing it but when you get a good shot, you'll do it all the time because it's worth it. And all those people who you're afraid will think you are nuts? Well, they are going to think that anyway for a million other reasons so who cares! lol Enjoy yourself and capture life how you want to remember it!


------------> Any ideas/questions for future Fridays? Leave me a comment!<------------

Even if you are not a blogger, you can click to leave an anonymous comment and share some love and your name there so I know who you are and that you are stalking me... lol