The Traveling Photographer

8 A Matter of Perspective

Down Low or Up High

Set yourself up in front of your subject, hold up your camera, frame your shot – click. That’s how most photos are taken: from our normal angle of view, at our everyday level of sight. We look up to see and take pictures of anything above eye level and we look and photograph down at anything below it. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you take all your pictures from this perspective, you risk your photos becoming predictable and dull on account of the all-too-familiar point of view. This is especially true when several pictures placed next to one another have the same perspective, perhaps in a vacation travelogue, in a photo book, or in a slideshow. For this very reason, it’s advisable to liven ...