Lesson #7 Vantage Points

Out of the millions, if not billions of photos that are taken each day, most of them are shot from roughtly the same vantage point: between five and six feet above the ground. This is the average height of the human body, and since most people shoot photos while standing upright with the camera held at eye level, there is very little variation in how their images look.

Varying your vantage point is a very easy and effective way to give your images a unique look. We are not used to looking at the world from any other view than from our own eye level, and so any photo that is taken from a drastically different vantage point will inherently appear more interesting to us.

Changing your vantage point can be as simple as standing on top of something, or crouching down. Or it can involve using more elaborate methods to get you or your camera into a higher or lower position, such as shooting from the top of a ten story building, holding your camera very close to the ground or your subject, or mouning your camera on top of a ten foot pole and using a self timer. The possibilities are endless, and only limited by your imagination and equipment.