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Photo Challenge

From Every Angle

This week, photograph a stationary subject from three different angles.

Chef Paul Dubeau. Photo by Shane Francescut. All rights reserved.

We’re delighted to welcome Shane Francescut back as guest host of today’s photo challenge. You might know Shane from his excellent photoblog, The Weekly Minute or remember his first guest photo challenge, “Split-Second Story.”

We all take pictures of something or someone by standing directly in front of our subject, clicking the shutter, and calling it a day. It’s often the way we take photos when we first pick up a camera — though what if you were encouraged to try photographing your subject from every conceivable angle? Your results might just go from ordinary and uninteresting to original and inspiring. Sometimes the perfect image comes to life by simply changing your composition, and photographing your subject from a different angle.

My series of chef portraits offer a great study in shooting from different angles. Be sure to check them out!

While working on a portrait series of local chefs, I have learned that changing the angle at which I shoot often produces new and interesting results that I hadn’t previously thought about. Once I place my subject, I shoot him or her from every angle I can think of: high, low, wide, tight, left and right. By altering your angle, and not your subject’s, you begin to see the power in the story that you are aiming to capture.

Chef Paul Dubeau. Photo by Shane Francescut. All rights reserved.

Chef Paul Dubeau. Photo by Shane Francescut. All rights reserved.

For this week’s challenge, photograph a person, or a piece of fruit, or a toy — any stationary object — and experiment by photographing it from different angles. While there is no minimum — and you’re always welcome to adapt every photo challenge to meet your needs — I challenge you to choose three of your favorite shots and post them in a gallery on your blog.

Chef Ian Carswell. Photo by Shane Francescut. All rights reserved.
Chef Ian Carswell. Photo by Shane Francescut. All rights reserved.
Chef Ian Carswell. Photo by Shane Francescut. All rights reserved.

Here are a few tips to help you alter your photographic composition:

  • Photograph a person by beginning from their left side and slowly moving around to their right. Always have them either look directly at you, or ask them to focus on a spot on the wall as you move.
  • Take wide angle shots and tight shots.
  • Photograph a plate of food from slightly above, from directly above, or making sure that part of the plate is cut out of the frame.
  • Photograph your child by getting down to his or her level or by standing just out of their reach as they swing on a swing.

Enjoy the process! I look forward to seeing your photos.

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    1. Really great question, @Swav!

      What I’d suggest is to experiment by taking many photos of your subject from many different angles and then selecting your three favorites to showcase in a gallery on your site. Just a suggestion, of course — you’re always welcome to adapt the challenge as you see fit to meet your needs as a photographer.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. Shane! I love this! I’ve been a bit busy this summer (two new grandsons!) so it’s great to see your latest project being hallmarked here on the Daily Post (the only post I have been weekly following during the last few months). I might have time to do this one this week. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  26. I love the photo challenge, but may I be grouchy for just a moment before going back to enjoying it?

    1) Even if you use photos you’ve used before, it’s nice to at least do new post, not just link to old posts.

    2) Please don’t just post a random post of photos a/o writings that don’t relate to the theme. I try to get to as many as possible each week and I don’t want to read non-related posts.

    3) Even if I love your posts, thirty or forty photos loses me. Quality over quantity, please (even if they’re all high quality, make some hard choices.)

    A big thank-you to all who post multiple entries and label them 1, 2, 3, etc.! That way I can be sure I saw at least one of your posts and can look at more if I have time.

    OK, thanks for putting up with me! Thanks for all the great challenge themes and for all the amazing entries. Off to view some more!

    janet

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

    1. Hello Janet,

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the weekly photo challenge. It’s driven by the passion of the folks who participate and it’s great to see you sharing thoughts on precisely what you’re passionate about (and what’re not passionate about!).

      Each week when we create a new challenge, we strive to make it so everyone — regardless of equipment, skill level, or time available — can participate. We strive to be inclusive, which is an important part of the WordPress.com community that we’re really proud to celebrate.

      Although it would be great if people posted only new photos taken especially for the challenge, we recognize and appreciate that what constitutes participation is as different and as unique as every person who joins the challenge. We welcome every various type of participation from folks who want to post their photos old and new. In fact, we often state up front and find ourselves repeating the fact that we advocate that folks adapt the challenge as they see fit so they feel comfortable participating in their own way.

      In this case, we’ve asked folks to explore taking photographs from every possible angle they can think of and then select three favorites for a gallery. If a participant has the time and enthusiasm to achieve that suggested goal, huzzah! If they have the time to browse their archives for a suitable entry, that’s great, too. If they post all 30 or 40 photos they took as part of their angle study, we consider that a fun variation on the challenge.

      Above all else, we encourage participation and we celebrate the fact that participation differs from person to person. I’m glad that you took the time to share your feedback — I welcome it.

      I want to make sure that anyone reading the comments understands that there are no hard and fast rules to participating in the weekly photo challenge.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. I know, Krista, and I agree that there aren’t really “rules” and I’m good with that, although I think adhering in some way to the theme would be good. There are only a few posts that make me grouchy and that may be just me, although I know some others who’ve expressed similar feelings to me. I don’t expect “new” photos, just new posts, but I don’t even mind that unless it seems to be every time. I hesitated about even posting my comments but tried to let anyone reading them know how much I do enjoy the effort that goes into participating. If you feel I was being rude, please feel free to delete my comment.

        Thanks for your comments and time.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. The good thing about this week’s prompt was that it made me ‘do’ something rather than trawl the archives. So out came the blackcloth, the instruction manual and a variety of objects to experiment on. I appreciate that you want to keep it flexible, Krista, but I must say I shared some of Janet’s exasperation this week. And I think those who just slammed up a link to a previous post missed out on a really great opportunity. I enjoyed exploring the possibilities yesterday; so much so that I’ve left the blackcloth out and will try again with some other objects today. Job done, then Krista? 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Janet,

        I’m glad that you shared your thoughts. I understand that it can be frustrating for some.

        My only concern with your comments and the reason why I wrote a lengthy reply is that I didn’t want other folks to feel that they are not allowed to participate unless the follow the challenge to the letter. Or that their entry is lacking if they only have time to browse their photo archives before creating a new post.

        I understand your frustration and appreciate your comments. I wanted to make our position as challenge hosts clear, in that we welcome all levels of participation.

        We’re lucky to have folks like you in this challenge that can and do place high expectations on themselves when they participate. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts!

        Like

      4. Hi Sandra,

        Huzzah! If this challenge urged you to unearth the black cloth and explore some possibilities that makes me dance a jig. I’m glad that the challenge inspired you.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. Hope you don’t mind me not numbering them but adding names in brackets 🙂 Most WPC’s I find I shot some photos on my iPhone earlier that week that fit the subject in my own subjective interpretation. And sometimes I published the photo with the theme just ahead of the new WPC on Friday 🙂 It is fun to participate but on the other hand it is quite a lot to take them all in. I admire you Janet for being faithful and loyal to all who participate. I enjoy your remarks and I do hope I offer some pleasure back by showing them.

      Like

      Reply

  30. A great challenge! By the way, I have posted 2 posts same content by mistake, and it still appear in the response list below, even though I deleted it in my blog, how can I remove one of them?

    Like

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