The Photo Skill That Changes Everything (even your life)

What’s the #1 thing that helps you make better travel photos? Being a master of your camera settings? No (I wish I had one of those obnoxious buzzers to press right now). Is it being an expert in Lightroom? No (cue that buzzer again). Is it having the best camera, and all the right equipment? I think you’re seeing the pattern here...the answer is a big fat no.

The #1 thing that helps you make better travel photos, is also a super handy life skill. It’s knowing when and how to change your perspective. Whoa. We’re getting deep with this one.

Right now, life kind of sucks in a lot of ways. We can’t do a lot of what we all love to do, and most of us can’t see people we want to see. Which kind of sucks. So what do we do to cope? Well some post angry rants on Facebook. I don’t recommend this method. The recommended approach? Change your perspective. 

Perspective is all about how you look at something - either literally like in photography, or figuratively like in a pandemic.

So here’s the challenge. You walk up to the Eiffel Tower and everyone (I mean in the old days) is lined up making photos. The same photo from the same vantage point. Do you line up and make the same photo? Sure, it’s OK to grab that shot while you’re there, I mean why not? If everyone else wants it, maybe it’s good, right?

But then, take a step back, take a long, slow breath, and change your perspective. That might mean moving to a different side, squatting, lying on the ground, looking up, across, down. That means changing your position. It means changing HOW you’re looking at the Eiffel Tower. OK, lying on the ground might be a little extreme in a foreign country so you might want to save that one for local photo outings….for now.

A slightly different view of the Eiffel Tower. She sure is a beauty!

Let’s come back to current times. We can look at our inability to travel as frustrating, maddening, and even depressing. OR we can see it as an opportunity. To learn new skills, find new ways to do things, practice something that’s been on the back burner for a while (hey French language I’m talking to you). 

It’s the same method I mentioned earlier. Take a step back, take a long, slow breath, and change your perspective. You’re stuck at home. But what can you learn while you’re there? How about camera settings, or Lightroom. How about French, or Spanish, or Japanese? Maybe learn to cook or bake something from the countries you’re missing so much.

See where I’m going here? Perspective is how you look at things. You can look at things like everybody else does (this pandemic sucks) or you can shift and see things from a different viewpoint (opportunity for growth).

An alternate view of the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum in Albi, France.

And it’s the same when you’re thinking about your travel photo skills. Right now you can learn SO much about your camera, your creativity, your mindset when it comes to creating photos. Get that camera out next time you go for a walk. I did that this morning. I’ve struggled with all of this going on too, and decided to practice what I blog. So out came my camera.

Now you’re on the walk that you might have been on a 1000 times. Stop and change your position or viewpoint. Look up at the sky. Look down at the grass or sidewalk or bugs. Think about the color, light, sounds, textures. Take it all in. And then make some photos. Even if you think the subject isn’t particularly pretty, or the photo might not make it to the wall of an art gallery. Make it anyway.

And after you’ve done this a few times, you’re going to notice that you have a different perspective even when you don’t have your camera. It’s an exercise that really shifts how you see your world around you.

This is ground cover in my back yard. I was lying down on the ground to capture this perspective of the flowers. And no the ground cover shouldn’t exactly be blooming and wouldn’t be if we had more landscaping desire. Don’t judge.

Now let’s fast forward to when we can all travel again. With these same perspective-shifting skills in place, let’s pretend we’re in New York City, specifically at the Statue of Liberty. Sure you can take the standard, entire lady in all her glory photos. Or you can look from a bit of a different angle and end up with something more unique. You can still tell what you’re looking at, but it’s just...well unusual. Creative. Fun. Maybe even weird.

So you can see that all the photo skills might be important. But changing your position, your viewpoint, is truly what will give you the most interesting and unique photos. 

Not that “normal” photo of our Lady of Liberty that you normally see. Which is exactly why I like it.

I think it’s easy to get caught up in the moment when you travel. You can get overwhelmed but all the newness, all the interesting stuff going on around you. Then the easy thing is to just start snapping away.

But what I’m challenging you to do, is to take another look at the interesting stuff. Take a second to catch your breath, un-overwhelm yourself, and think about how you really want to capture this scene, subject, event…

This one I captured by stopping my feet. I needed a little break if you want to know the truth. But as I paused I looked down. Et voila.

And really important in all of this? Move your feet. This seems obvious. But when I was first told this I thought “well of course I move my feet”, until I actually paid more attention. Uh...OK. So I get stuck standing there snapping away at the exact same scene, from the exact same angle making a whole lot of photos of the exact same thing.

Why do we do that? I think it goes back to getting overwhelmed by the newness and the excitement all around us. It’s easy to find a comfortable spot, or see a spot that others have picked, and just settle into it.

Well don’t do that. Stay on the move. Loose and limber, dodging and weaving. In and out of the crowd of tourists. Make note of what others are capturing in their photos, and maybe grab that too. And then move on to the next angle, viewpoint, detail. Zoom in, step closer, zoom out, step back. Wide perspective, detailed close-up views. 

And guess what? If you’re one of those counting your steps, this is definitely going to help that count go up!

There are so many advantages to changing your perspective. It helps you get better photos, feel better about the situation you’re in, get more steps in.The benefits are countless...if you ask me.

Stepping a little to the right is what brought this one to me. I’m a big fan of finding frames in my shot, so this one makes me happy.

Here’s what I want you to try. Get out your camera and go for a walk around the block. Walk slowly. Think about what you’re seeing. The light, colors, sounds, movement. Every so often stop and just take it all in. And make some photos of what you see, and what you feel. And then turn another direction and make some photos. 

Make 10 different photos of the same subject, whether that be a neighbor, a tree, or a cat. Different photos of the same subject, but from different perspectives.

And then I think you know what to do. But for anybody who doesn’t know? Head on over to our private Facebook Group and share your results!! I’ll be going live this week to talk about it and share some of mine. 

We’re all still in this together. So if we support each other, share with each other, and create with each other, it’s going to be a whole lot easier to get through. So comment away, join us in the Facebook group, and let me know how you’re doing. I really do want to know.