'See' Your Photos

What makes a picture unique? What makes someone take a look at one of your photos and say with excitement, 'This is amazing! How did you take this picture?'. It certainly makes us feel good when people appreciate our photography and artwork but what really makes a great picture?

Believe it or not, perspective is extremely important to take into consideration while shooting with your camera. Stop and think and let your imagination be the only limits between you and your shutter.

To illustrate: If five people took a picture of the same scene, would they all be the same? No. Every single person would take a different angle, a different perspective, of the same scene but adding their own uniqueness to it. Adding what they truly see to be important.

Take for instance the following picture. Now, anyone looking at this would know it's a plant of some sort. However, did you notice the perspective that is used here? It's not showing the plant in a typical fashion as you would see depicted in other photographs. Here, we are drawing attention by showing the underside of the plant's leaves and how the stems reach up toward the blue skies as if boasting their own beauty with shimmering purple fingertips. Almost like you're under the plant, so small, and staring up at it being so massive!

Perspective helps the photographer bring pictures alive and if used properly, can speak volumes! It shows relationships between other objects, spaces, depth, and more.

Take a look at this picture which was converted to black and white. Clearly, there is nothing special about the scene but the perspective. What to you stands out in this picture? Correct, it's the railing. Notice when you first looked at this picture, your eyes travelled almost all the way down the railing to the end drawing your attention to a specific location? Pretty cool huh? Yes, perspective is something that can do amazing things with the simplest of pictures if taking into consideration.

So the next time you're shooting, you do the capturing and don't let your camera do the work. Take the photos with a unique angle, a unique perspective, and then when you look at them, you'll truly see your photos like you never have before.

Enjoy your adventures! Email me some of your photos using perspective to me. I've love to see them!