It’s often surprising how a different perspective can give you an entirely new angle on your subject. It’s good to walk to different aspects of the building or landscape you are photographing. I’ve developed a habit of doing that and I often get better results than what I see at first sight.
That’s also why my companions have easily gotten impatient with me at times. My years of travel provide many examples.
When in Switzerland with a buddy road tripping in a VW Beetle, before I knew I was a photographer, I walked up and down the road to get the right angle on the village far below. My friend became annoyed with me, “Just make the d**n picture,” he yelled. He was already back in the car. After I turned pro, I reminded him of that incident a couple of times.
Or when in Jerusalem visiting the Dome of the Rock with my family, I cut loose from them to photograph the beautiful building and intricate designs from different places. The first shot I make is rarely the best. I get down low and look up. Walk around and make the photo from an angle instead of straight on. Take close ups and also wide-angle shots.
Sometimes “walking around” a subject means going back to the same scene in different seasons like I did at Rickett’s Glen State Park and the Poconos in Pennsylvania. To photograph the waterfalls, I returned in the autumn and winter to catch the cascading water surrounded by colored leaves, and in snow and ice. With my tripod and Sony zoom lens camera, I took one careful step at a time down the snow-covered rocks—knowing full well that I would have to climb back up.
If you are making pictures for an editor, they will like the variety in angles to choose from, and you will be more satisfied. A National Geographic editor once told me, “As you look through a photographers’ photos, the subject should get better until “bingo,” one of the pictures just stands out.”
For more photos like these, visit our Pennsylvania and Middle East albums.