Look Twice
As photographers we can easily fall into a rut of always seeing and photographing our world just one way. We find something that works and repeat. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that, and done well it can be an important aspect of your style. But if you’re always photographing from eye level with a 50mm lens you’re missing out on alternative ways to tell visual stories.
The spring 2017 issue of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) magazine, The Designer, features examples of my photography that show alternate views of the same garden. The story was written by Katie Elzer-Peters, a garden writer colleague I’ve known for several years.
The first pair of images is from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, which was showing glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly when I visited and made these images last August. The first of the pair shows one of the sculptures in the context of the garden.
The second image concentrates on the glass art itself.
The second pair of images in the story came from our own garden. Again, a wide view (although made with a 60mm lens, not a wide-angle lens) showing context is one way to view this island bed.
Coming in closer, I used my 24mm wide-angle lens to emphasize the flowers and let the rest of the garden recede into the background.
You can read the full article in this PDF:
How to Take Better Photographs of Your Work.
Next time you’re out making images, see if you can find new and different ways to see your subject than the first idea that pops into your mind.