If you thought photographing birds in flight is tough, wait until you chase a dragonfly with a tele lens. They are about an inch-and-a-half long and zig-zag at random. When they are in love, we are entertained to a Bollywood movie-like dance at the speed of light.
Over a romantic sunset, the couple darted around blades of grass, hovered above water and finally gazed into each other’s eyes, mid-air. That was when I shouted: “Cut! Good take!” 🙂
Olympus OM-D, ISO 1600, f5.6, 1/4000 sec.
Sometimes, you may want to use a tilted angle for creative effect. If you choose to slant the horizon, make it fairly obvious or it may be mistaken for sloppy framing.
One day, a hundred years from now, if this picture hang on the wall of some art gallery, an arty-farty visitor will speculate:
“The photographer wanted to convey the contrasting perspectives of urban and rural, the clash between development and conservation. The two sets of twins represent abstract symmetry but the oblique angle is a subtext of the underlying conflict…”
Actually, the reason I used the Dutch Angle here was pedestrian. I wanted to keep both the skyscrapers and the banana tree in Kampung Baru within a a single frame 🙂 There was simply no space for me to move back for a more conventional framing.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f11, 1/320 sec.
When one is awed by a seaside sunset, it is easy to overlook a basic rule in photography. Keep the horizon level. A tilted horizon is especially noticeable in pictures of the ocean. Unless it is intentional, make it a habit to level properly whenever the horizon is visible.
Even without a levelling gauge or grid lines, you can level by getting the horizon line parallel to the top or bottom edge of the viewfinder (or LCD).
Although an image editing software can rotate your image to correct framing error, it is better to get it correct in-camera. Each time you level with software, you lose part of the picture due to cropping
Make a conscious effort and after a while it will become a subconscious effort each time you pick up the camera to compose a picture.
Photographed at Bagan Lalang beach.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f10, 1/320 sec.
