Wednesday 8 December 2010

Story of the shot - Frog Reflections


Frog Reflections

One of the most common pieces of advice I hear and read to get better photos is to change the angle. Reach high, get down low, don't just shoot from eye level. That piece of advice ran through my head as I visualised this shot. I was walking through my girlfriends garden when I noticed two frogs in the pond. They seemed to be resting and as I watched they didn't move at all. The view gave me the impression of old Roman statesmen relaxing in the bathes contemplating affairs of state. I took a few shots of the frogs but wasn't overly happy with them. 

So I grabbed my long lens, my 55-200 and lay flat on my stomach beside the pond. I tried to steady myself as much as possible and fired off a few shots handheld. A few came out and in others the focus plain shifted so that plants and not the frogs head that was in focus. When I loaded the image onto my laptop I was delighted to see that the frogs reflection had been preserved and I feel like that contemplative mood I picked upon from the scene was preserved in the photo. A little cropping and sharpening in Aperture and this is the final image. 

Changing the angle gave me the photo that I wanted and it's something I always try to remember when visualising a shot now. 

You can view this photo on flickr too.

D

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