...where to stand," and Ansel Adams, who said that, certainly did know where to stand, even if it meant climbing on top of his car as he so often did.
Last week I posted images shot from my car however I honestly cannot remember ever standing on top of any car to shoot any image. That's not to say that I don't know where to stand to capture a good photograph.
I was photographing a wedding in Rye, NY when I saw the child above playing in his car. I simply could not get my body low enough for the image that I could see in my "mind's eye".
The solution was pretty simple, after laying down as low as I could I simply turned the camera upside down and shot from there. It was a single frame and it worked pretty well, even down to the man in the background demonstrating a pretty good photographic stance himself.
Here's the image inverted, and before you ask, no it's not cropped at all.
However knowing where to stand is just one part of a good photograph. Knowing "how" to stand and "how" to hold a camera are every bit as important if one's goal is to produce images worth looking at.
Now this may all seem pretty basic, elementary perhaps, however I do recall quite clearly a conversation with a child's parent who wondered why her three year old wasn't capturing sharp images.
Well, for starters, no mater how cool it looks, the one-handed approach rarely works :)
Two hands are much better, although I might suggest that martini glasses and perhaps even martinis may be a little distracting.
In this shot of my associate, who has been around cameras since she herself was a child, we can see that the palm of the left hand supports the camera body as the fingers extend under the lens, while the right hand grips the side of the camera body. Note also how the elbows are held close to her own body.
Talking of elbows, use them for support as this lady above is doing provides more stability.
Note also the placement of both hands and how the left foot and right knee are firmly planted.
