Friday, October 8, 2010

Friday's Photolife--What's your angle

Wednesday's answer: Sorry, there were no winners. I didn't realize this would be so tricky. It was an icehouse. Fill it up all winter, and you have ice throughout the spring and summer. Cool, huh? This particular one was Jefferson's at Monticello.

On to the Photolife:

Do you always take pictures straight on? Here's one (mostly straight on) at a WWII memorial in Annapolis, MD.
How does the impact of the picture change when shot from a side angle?
Do you think about your vantage point when taking pictures? Try it sometime. No fancy equipment required. Just break out your point and shoots. This is more about where you put yourself and the camera.
Shoot from above (I was on a balcony above my cute nephew.)
or below (I knelt at the bottom of the column that was part of James Madison's icehouse.)
or dog level. (I held the camera down around my ankles and clicked--talk about literally pointing and shooting.)
Take this colorful street.
Think about how the angle changing
alters what the picture says or your reaction to it.

Application to writing? Telling stories from different points of view can dramatically or subtly change the impact of what you're saying. If a scene isn't working for you, try it from a different POV or, if you'd rather keep your story at one POV character, try giving him a different perspective. e.g. For one scene in my WIP I had my POV character on a balcony overlooking the action on the street below rather than at street level. Think about how her perspective would have been different if I'd put her looking out a basement window.

17 comments:

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Of course! An ice house!
I love how your photos change by changing point of view. Very cool!

Yat-Yee said...

Such great pictures, as usual.

Tana said...

Oh I love the side shots! What a great idea!

Angie said...

Cool pictures. That is interesting to think about in writing. Where are we seeing the action from? Nice thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Wow, you're talented. I never thought about taking pictures like that before. I love the one with the brick walkway.

Carolyn V. said...

Ohhh, I love the analogy! And the photos are amazing!

Terra said...

Changing perspectives makes it more interesting; thanks for the visuals to illustrate that.

Stina said...

Love the photos. I did a similar comparison to writing and photography not too long ago. It's so easy to get locked into one perspective. ;)

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Great post! I love taking photos! I took some of row crops this spring. I laid on the ground to get some great angles of the lines of corn. :-)

lotusgirl said...

Thanks, y'all. I hope you'll try this out next time you're taking pictures.

Alix said...

They are such fabulous photos, very inspiring!

Patti said...

I love this analogy and I love photos that are from different angles, different points of view, which is great.

Jude said...

AWESOME POST. Where do you get this stuff!? I definitely like the oblique angles more than straight-on photos. And telling a story from a different character's point of view definitely injects new life into the narrative. You really know how to spice things up around here!

Tess said...

girl, you have some serious talent. I even pulled my 11 y/o son in to talk about how changing the vantage point adds so much....I just had to share the coolness of this post with someone and he was the closest :D

lotusgirl said...

Thanks so much for all the back pats. I'm all blushy now.

Jude, "this stuff" all comes out of my head--generally it's a crazy place, but sometimes I can wrangle something coherent out of it.

Tess, Here's to forcing kids to listen to us!

Unknown said...

Great pictures and good point about POV in writing! thanks for sharing.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

An ICEhouse???! Wow! I never would have guessed that, but that is awesome!

And I recognize some of the pictures here...hehe. I remember how hard that street was to get to!