Issue 2: Mastering Composition

Colorful processions and dancing also make dramatic images from a lofty point of view. Look at the wonderful pattern (#8) I was able to capture during carnival in Rio. This was taken from the top of the bleachers.

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Look Up
The opposite approach to composition can also yield excellent results. For example, in a hotel lobby in Barcelona, Spain, I shot up into the remarkable display of large illuminated spheres hanging from a 20-story high ceiling (#9). I used a 16mm wide angle lens to exaggerate the graphic lines of the décor, but it was this upward perspective that produced such a unique image. I used the same treatment in photographing autumn foliage in New Hampshire (#10). I constantly move my eyes over a scene when I’m hunting for strong compositions. In the forest, the orange and red canopy caught my eye because of the way it spread out above me, and with my wide angle lens I was able to dramatize the graphic design of the branches.

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Specialty Lenses
Using a fisheye lens is a different kind of experience when looking up. This is especially true when the subject is round. Fisheyes bend straight lines in producing very stylized images. When the subject is already round, like the famous dome in the tomb of the Medici family (#11) in Florence, Italy, there is no apparent distortion. You can’t make something that is round more round.

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Get Really Close
Another intriguing perspective involves subjects that are very tiny. Normally, people don’t look at insects face to face. Here’s another approach: This eye-to-eye perspective on a moth is something completely unexpected (#12). It holds the attention of a viewer.

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I did a similar thing when I photographed a red eye tree frog (#13), but this time I positioned the camera a little below eye level. This gave greater stature to a creature that rarely, if ever, receives it.

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