Friday, September 10, 2010

Friday's Photolife--Taking it Wide

Don't forget to enter the contest on Monday's 200 post, if you haven't already. The deadline is Monday, Sept. 13 at Midnight Eastern time.

Who's up for a little photography? Raise those hands high! You know you've missed it.
Using a wide angle setting on a camera is great fun. Even simple pictures like this one can be more dramatic.
Get super close with a wide angle view. The perspective can be wonderfully skewed.

Or show way more than you can get in a regular shot. I always feel there's more action in wide angle shots even when it's just a couple of cacti standing around.

Application to writing? Before describing a scene, think of the whole as if you were looking through a wide angle. See what the different perspective makes you think of and try to capture that on paper.

16 comments:

Carolyn V. said...

Love the pics! So pretty.

Great analogy. I was told in a conference that you should start with a wide view and then get smaller from there. I think it makes sense. =)

Patti Lacy said...

GREAT analogy and post.

AND...you also need to think small in the sense that a million toilets flushing as police sirens sound at a high school MUCH more dramatically SHOWs the drug problem at the school than saying a "big" sentence like "There's a big problem of drug use at our school."

Writers, we're COMPLEX, huh?

Miss you at my place!!

Patti

lotusgirl said...

Carolyn, I've heard that and I agree.

Patti, I'm not sure where to go for your blog. It's not coming up.

Alyssa said...

This is great! And I do have a cousin Sarah out here. She's a distant cousin, but family nonetheless. Her dad and my mom are 2nd cousins. Her grandpa and my great grandma are siblings. It's been so fun getting to know her. She's my age, too. :)

Diane said...

Great pictures. Love the cacti!!! :O)

Tana said...

OMGosh I LOVE that first picture! Great tips!

Susan R. Mills said...

Great pics and great tip on writing. Thanks!

Angie said...

Those are great pics, and great writing advice too!

Patti said...

Great analogy and I love the water picture. Sometimes I'm a little tunnel visioned in my scenes, this is a good perspective to think about.

Jessie Oliveros said...

Good point. Get beyond what is just in front of you, right?

Beth Mann said...

Beautiful pics, Lois. Love the cactus (cacti?). Happy Weekend :)

PJ Hoover said...

See, I just love your photo posts! You are an amazing photographer, so please keep these up!

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Ah, I love wide-angle! Love it! These are nice pictures, too. I think my favorite is the close-up of the cactus. That's hard to get right!

Jude said...

That's beautiful. What camera do you use?

lotusgirl said...

Jude, I use a Canon 20D. For the first one at the beach I used the wide setting on my regular lens. For the other two I used my Fisheye lens.

Stina said...

Love the pictures.

I'm big into close up photography, which is probably why I focus more on the smaller details in my setting descriptions than on the bigger ones.