This is how to take more interesting photos. One thing will change everything.
Have you ever taken a photo, looked down at the screen and felt absolutely nothing?
Me too.
It’s not a bad photo. It’s not a mistake you can point to. It’s just flat and boring and it’s like everyone else’s photo. What you might not know is that flatness, that boringness, it’s not a technical failure. It’s not your camera, it’s your lens and it’s not your editing.
It is this one simple thing.
If you’re still with me, if you feel this, too, let’s dissect that moment.
Here’s how I think about it. When you walk up to almost anything, a flower, a friend, a skate ramp, even your family gathered around the table, most of us photograph it from exactly how we see it. At eye level. From our everyday perspective.
So that means everyone else who has ever stood in that spot has more or less seen the exact same thing. So of course, when you look at the photograph later, it’s gonna feel lifeless. It’s gonna feel ordinary. Because it is ordinary.
You’ve simply photographed the view that a few million other people have already stored somewhere in their memory.
Same Tree: Different Perspective
Wanna know how to take more interesting photos?
So this is where you get to try something new; what happens if you don’t stand just there?
What if you get low? Like really low, knees on the ground, camera near the dirt, looking up at the subject like they are the most important thing in the world.
(at that very moment when you’re shooting that photograph they are the most important thing so why not give it the time?)
Look Up: Look Down - how to take more interesting photos
Or you could go the other way, Climb up some steps, stand on a bench, find the balcony, and let the scene spread out beneath you like a map.
Neither choice is right or wrong. That’s the part you decide. The camera doesn’t care whether you go up or down, only that you show it a different part of the world from where you were already standing.
You might remember when drones with cameras became more affordable and everyone started sharing videos and photographs from high above. People lost their minds because seeing that perspective was always so physically difficult to access. The trick was never the technology. It was just that point of view. A look at the world like we hadn’t really seen before.
The view from above
For me, it was action photography that helped shift my view. Skate and BMX is most well known for being super creative, for looking at different points of view, different ways of seeing the world, and most importantly, unique ways of participating in everything going on around us.
Fisheye lenses were the popular choice because they emphasise just how high these kids would go on skateboards and BMX’s, and again made us look at the world differently.
Not only were the tricks and the skills that the riders and skaters had unique, but now we were witnessing them in a completely new and different way that made you stop and think about how they were doing what they were.
New Lens? Better Camera? No.
So this article is not about getting a new lens or picking up a drone, it’s about changing this perspective from where you are already.
For example, let’s say you were to shoot bunch of flowers in a vase. You might think, I’ll put that in front of a wall next to a window. And that’s a great place to start.
But what if you balance it on the edge of a table and shoot from beneath, looking up at it?
Instantly, that’s a completely different bunch of flowers.
Where are YOU standing?
So next time you pick up your camera, pause.
By all means, shoot the standard photo that you were gonna shoot anyway.
But then ask yourself: where else could you stand?
What one small decision made slightly differently could be the difference between a photograph that gets scrolled past and one that stops someone in their tracks?
If you’d like to practice this kind of thinking with other Melbourne photographers who watched the same questions, Loop Art & Photo Space runs classes and community sessions out here in Olinda.
This space is all about real feedback from real people to help you confidently build your style.
Wanna play?