photography

a photo study: low angle

This week’s photo challenge has been inspired by Ted Forbes’ Using Low Angle video.  Low-angle composition invites the photographer to create images with different and unique perspectives.

Enya
Enya

We generally experience our daily lives at eye level and often feel more comfortable photographing at eye level. Low angle photography invites us to look up…to create images from any point below eye level which gives the effect of looking up at an object or person.  Also you can go to the extreme and show a worm’s eye view of the world.

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A worm’s-eye view is a view of an object from below, as though the observer were a worm; the opposite of a bird’s-eye view. It can be used to look up to something to make an object look tall, strong, and mighty while the viewer feels child-like or powerless. A worm’s eye view commonly uses three-point perspective, with one vanishing point on top, one on the left, and one on the right.

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To photograph low angle composition, you will need to crouch, bend, or get down onto the floor.  A personal note ― have found that when crouching I need to find a way to brace myself as without there often is a slight tremble which, sigh, results in a  blurred image. 

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A low angle perspective increases the height of the subject.

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It creates an image where the subject appears more powerful and  dramatic.

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It lends empathy to a viewer as through a shared experience of a toddler’s world within a playground setting or standing before three-feet ocean waves.

This angle is also great when you wish to capture the mood.

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I began this photo study project about 18 weeks ago with an intention to develop, expand, and share my understanding of photography throughout 2018. Regrettably, I am finding that this project is being negatively impacted by some vision difficulties which may require  eye surgery within the next couple of months. Consequently, I have decided to reblog some photo educational posts from other bloggers…sorta like using blogs as substitute teachers. I hope you will find them as inspiring and informative as I have.

To close this week’s photo study, please enjoy these two Ted Forbes’ videos on low angle photography.

the quatrain of seven steps

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People burn the beanstalk to boil beans,
filtering them to extract juice.
The beanstalks were burnt under the cauldron,
and the beans in the cauldron wailed:
“We were originally grown from the same root;
Why should we hound each other to death with such impatience?

~Cao Zhi

I was introduced to the Quatrain of Seven Steps while watching, The Advisors Alliance, a 2017 Chinese two-part television series based on the life of Sima Yi, a government official and military general who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period of China.

The poem itself is written in the traditional ”five-character quatrain” style and is an extended metaphor that describes the relationship of two brothers and the ill-conceived notion of one harming the other over petty squabbling.