Perspective: Up high, Down low

Paratroopers with the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) task force participate in activities commemorating the 67th Anniversary of Operation Overlord— the D-Day landings, while in Normandy, France on June 2, 2011.  (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   Dear visitor of my blog, two days, two posts with more than one photo; lucky you. 

   So, this first photo at first glance may look like just a normal stand up and take a photo of the paratrooper doing stuff. Well, I'm here to let you know, it's not.

You might say, "Lies."

   No truth; check out the photo below. You can clearly see the soldiers are hanging from some contraption off the ground. More so the soldier up top, yeah he's pulling himself up so he's even higher.

For those of you unfamiliar with airborne operations: He's simulating pulling down on his "risers" [those things that are connected to the parachute] to "pull a slip"  which helps you control which way you're going while falling with style; at least a little bit of control anyway these aren't cool Hollywood/Skydiving parachutes, these are made to get you to the ground as quickly as possible without, hopefully, breaking the Soldier]

So, again, like yesterday it's about getting up high; or at least getting to eye level.

   In order to get into the harness the soldiers climb up a movable metal staircase, hook up, and then the stairs are pulled away. So what did I do? Yep, as soon as they moved the stair case I away I was on it.

Needless to say I got the funny looks. But really that's just something you have to get used to when you're looking for unique perspectives; you should ALWAYS be looking for unique perspectives.

Composition may be King; but Perspective is the Queen.

Holiday Perspective

Soldiers from the 341st PSYOP Co. from San Antonio, Texas visit the Fischer House at Lackland Air Force base to delivery toys and talk with children  about their jobs during Operation Toy Drop. This is the first year Operation Toy Drop will help children throughout the nation. To learn more visit www.optoydrop.net. (U.S. army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   If you haven't noticed it's December and that can only mean one thing! No, not Christmas. Toy Drop.

"Huh? What's Toy Drop?"

   Only the coolest thing the Army does all year; thousands of paratroopers donate thousands of toys for deserving kids. I'll refrain from comparing it to other toy collection drives; but needless to say this is pretty awesome.

"So, how do they drop the toys? And uh, why are we talking about this? This is a photography blog?"

   Well they don't drop the toys, they drop themselves, paratroopers with parachutes jump out of C-130's after donating toys. And we're talking about this because today's picture is about Toy Drop. [Assuming you read the caption...I'll wait...still waiting...oh hey there, welcome back]

   Now that I've gotten that plug out of the way, lets talk about this photo and how that has to do with perspective.

   Okay, clear subject(s) The kid and maybe the Soldier. What you probably don't know is the kid is sitting in the turret of a Humvee; the soldier down below is helping out. You don't get this shot from the ground, you can't. You have to get up high. So yes, I had to climb up on top of this Humvee to shoot the photograph. Yes, everyone thought I was crazy. I like the shot, hopefully you do too. But more to the point, I want you to start experimenting with your own perspective.

   As for the photograph itself; well the turret partially frames our subject(s) who are in points of interest. You could argue the eyes have leading lines. But really that's about it regarding this shot.

So, here's a bonus shot! Hey guess what, I had to climb up on top of a bench to get this shot. You guessed it, everyone looked at me like I was crazy.
 

One of thousands of toys donated by paratroopers for children during Operation Toy Drop 13 at at Fort Bragg, N.C.on December 9, 2010 (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres

 
   So one more thing to say about Toy drop; just because you don't live by Fort Bragg or jump out of airplanes for a living doesn't mean you can't be a part of toy drop. You can visit your local community, ...well anything really..., churches, shelters, orphanages [yes orphanages still exist] all get requests for toys during the Christmas season, you can help out and give a gift to a random child. I know I will.

   If this post inspires you to do anything, hopefully it's to give a gift to a child you've never met before, just like our Soldiers at Fort Bragg have been doing for the past 16 years.

Making your own perspective

Exhibit A: Ignore the, "this photographer is so weird," expression.  Critique, a little too much head room.

It may not be readily apparent but this is pretty high up [see the obstacles in the lower left? yeah, those aren't for small children] the fact that it's high up is perspective enough right? Maybe.

The above photograph wasn't shot at eye level, heck it wasn't even shot level. But it was shot uniquely.

Here is a more standard photo where I shot it eye level. Don't get me wrong, eye level is great, if you're shooting kids eye level can be wonderful; but you're going to have to get down to their eye level not your own.

Okay so lets compare and contrast. [Ideally I would have shot the same subject in the same location for this to be a really good teaching example. But, sometimes we work with what we got.]

They both are shot from a tower, a fairly unique perspective in and of itself. They both have subjects in points of interest. And they both have British soldiers in them; aka a clear subject. So, really what's the major difference? Well subjectivity of course.

I recently was in a photo group that slammed a fellow photographer for using a dutch angle on a mundane photo. I personally didn't see a problem with it. why not at least try to make the mundane interesting or unique? Tilting your camera is one way. Getting up high or down on your belly is another. Maybe jumping up on a top of a truck or climbing a ladder will change your whole perspective of the scene.

There is simply no reason not to change your point of view. You should change it often.

Perspective

A flower iced over after a rare ice storm in Fayetteville, North Carolina January 11, 2011. P.S. Friends don't let friends shoot dead center.

   I like this photo. But I hate how I composed it. At least my subject is clear. Someone, who is not named me, could argue it's framed; the ice kind of frames up the flower. But luckily for me this post isn't about composition  [wait, every post is about composition] this post isn't going to focus on composition [there I like that better] it's about perspective.

It always amazes me how rarely I see a people with camera's bend their knees.

   What probably doesn't readily jump out at you at first glace, maybe second glace, is that this little flower is on the ground. About 68 inches [that's a guesstimate] below where my eyes normally sit. I had to get all the way down on the ice for this shot.

   A brief note about color temperature; notice how a part of the ice just behind the flower  is white and the ice in the foreground is blue? Yeah, that's because the flower was in the shade and I didn't use a flash. This resulted in two light sources at two different color temperatures. Had I used a flash to overpower the shade the foreground ice would have been white as well. Of course, the blue ice in the WAY back still would have been blue. but really all that means is that i needed two flashes!

I find that the photos that capture me the most are ones that aren't taken from the height of 5 to 7 feet.

   What do I mean by that? Well quite simply the photos most people take while standing up don't show the world from a unique perspective but rather an ordinary perspective. Of course there are many great photos to be had from an ordinary perspective, but the ones that really capture, more often than not come from unique perspectives. 

   Luckily for us, unique perspectives aren't that hard to find. Climb a ladder, jump up on a truck, bend your knees, heck you can even lay down with your camera. You don't need to lean out of a Blackhawk [But it doesn't hurt to be someplace unique] for a unique perspective.

G.I. Joe: Real American Hero

WWII Veteran, Sgt. Maj. Raymond Sylvester, stands with Paratroopers from the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command at the American cemetery in Normandy, France on June 6, 2011. These Paratroopers are members of Task Force Normandy, which is a multinational force of U.S., U.K., French, and German Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen in a combined effort to remember and celebrate the 67th Anniversary of the D-Day operations. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

I just want to thank all the men and women who have made sacrifices for our great nation; because of them I have been given the greatest gift of all: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It's all about the choices you make

Soldiers from the U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) prepare to conduct an night jump from Camp Mackall, N.C., on July 19, 2011 (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   Did you know that at night time it's dark? Crazy right? Also, you should know that I did desaturate this image a little to help with the noise.

   Taking photographs is all about making choices. What equipment to use, where to shoot from, how long should I wait for something to happen. Do I know what's going to happen?

   In this photo I knew what was going to happen and I was aware of my surroundings.  

   I shot this with at  f/1.8 @ 1/13th of a second and 3200 ISO  from a tripod. There isn't a whole lot of blur because there wasn't a whole lot of moving going on. Well, minus the propeller on the left, but I was looking for that motion blur.

   So why did I choose those settings? Well  I went with an ISO of 3200 because that was highest my camera would go without introducing an unacceptable amount of noise. The lower settings on the other hand just wouldn't give me enough light without a huge aperture.

   I knew the CASA is built in such a way that having more than one person on the ramp at the same time is dangerous; I knew those paratroopers would be standing around not moving very much as they loaded the aircraft one by one. But they would still be moving, so I couldn't go too slow or I'd have a blurry mess but I didn't have to go very fast either.

   Because I knew the limitations of my flash [just a few feet] I knew using one wasn't an option; it was just too far and the area too large an area to light everything up properly without a ridiculous amount of lighting. 

   I could have gotten closer but then I would have needed a a wider angle lens. Problem, because I didn't have a f/1.8 wide angle lens I would have needed an even longer shutter speed and/or upped my ISO.

When it's dark I need to get the shutter speed right, when it's bright outside I need to get my aperture right, then again when it involves motion shutter again is key, do I want blur or do I want to freeze something?

   Photography is all about decision making. I like to make my decisions as soon as I get to an area. Sometimes I make bad choices and have reconsider my plan of attack. Do I mount the Flash? What's the lowest ISO I can  get? What two lenses am I going to have on my cameras [yes, I like to shoot with two cameras] Should I be shooting in shutter priority, Aperture Priority, or do I need to worry about manual settings?

I dislike manual settings, I like to let my camera do the math, I worry about the composition.

   Did I just blow your mind? A photographer who hates manual shooting? Camera's are pretty smart nowadays, they get exposure right a lot of the time. When I used an underwater disposable camera to take photos I was at the complete mercy of the camera and the exposure came out just fine. When I do use manual settings I set it and forget it. At least until lighting conditions change.

   Yes, sometimes I am forced to use manual mode because my camera isn't as smart as me, but 99% of the time it knows what to do. A camera however, cannot compose.

   And that is why when I look at a photo the first thing I look at is composition. The second, third, fourth and fifth things I look at? Also, composition. 

I make my technical choices up front so that when my eye is in the viewfinder the only choices I'm making are about my subject.

ISO and you

Paratroopers from the 301st TPC conducted nighttime Airborne Operations leaving from San Diego, California and landing on Edwards Air Force Base on January 21, 2011. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

   Believe it or not, there was a time when I disliked flash. "Why use flash? I'll just turn up my ISO!" "No one likes flash in their eyes," "It's more 'tactical' to use flash," "The flash seems to have a mind of its own," and a plethora of other excuses to not use flash.

   So, for those of you non-converted, what to do? I like ISO. No, I love ISO. [I love flash more...] Sensors get better every other month it seems and after playing with a NIKON D3s a couple years ago in pitch black conditions at 102,000 I was impressed. Yes, at 102,000 the noise is ridiculous, but that fact that I could shoot 1/60 at all and get something in those conditions blew my mind.

   But this wasn't shot with a D3S, it was shot with a t2i (an old canon entry level dslr) with an ISO1600 f/3.5 (not a very wide aperture) at 1/60th. You'll notice it's pretty noisy at 1600, but it gets the job done. It was sunset so I wanted to keep the oranges and I didn't have a gel with me to match the light of my flash with the light of the sunset.

   At least the higher ISO got the job done at dusk; good luck getting anything without a flash, tripod, or a much wider aperture after the sun goes down without cranking out your ISO way up. A tripod would have been nice to have, but even then I probably wouldn't have been able to capture this blur free even with a tripod, these soldiers where moving pretty quickly. A 1.8 lens would have been great to have here as well, which I did in fact have, but it wasn't the angle I wanted.

   My lens was as wide as it would go, and my shutter speed was as slow as I could hold it without blur. Which really left me with just one option, kick up the ISO.

   "If you love ISO much why is it your last option?"

  Because it saves the day. You can't always have the gear you want, but being able to quickly and easily make sacrifices in quality for improving your lighting is better than nothing. In the above case I wanted to use a wide angle lens, which only opened up to 3.5. I had a 50 mm lens that opened up to 1.8, but it wasn't the angle I wanted. I was able to keep the lens I wanted and still got the shot because I upped my ISO.

A few words about noise

   In the Halycon days of film increasing your ISO meant putting in a new roll of film and in exchange you got some fairly pleasing grain. Grain was a by product of the increased sensitivity. Nowadays uppping your ISO is as easy as a couple presses of a button, but the by product of increasing digital sensitivity is noise.

   It's like when you're listening to a low quality audio file and you turn your stereo to max volume; sure it's loud, but it's not very clear, that's noise. You're turning the volume on your camera with low quality light and the end result is a noisy photo. The colors are a little off sometimes, and you'll have a rouge pixels that are green, yellow, or red instead of blue.