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Heads Up! Look Up and Shoot for Powerful Photos
Your camera won’t do it for you
I love talking about — and writing about — photographic composition.
To me, that’s the last remaining aspect of photography that technology hasn’t completely taken over. Modern cameras can handle focusing and exposure, help you with leveling, give you options for depth of field, and maybe even suggest a good restaurant for later. But the way you frame a shot, and the angle you use, are entirely your responsibility.
And that brings me to the point of this article — angles. When you create an image, you typically want to accurately depict the subject you’re shooting, perhaps even enhance it.
And if that subject is tall, well, in those cases, I say these four words: Look Up and Shoot!
Like a Tower, For Example
Yeah, like a tower, for example. “Elizabeth Tower” in London, as shown at the top of this article, certainly qualifies. (And yes, that’s the name of the tower. And it displays “The Great Clock of Westminster”. What you know as “Big Ben” is actually the big bell.)
I couldn’t stand at the base of the tower — not without getting arrested by British security chaps. But by looking up and shooting, zooming in on the famous clockface, I can…
