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.