Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~Albert Einstein

There are so many times when I have a camera in my hand that I shoot about 10 frames of the same scene/pose/moment from the same location.  Sometimes that’s valid (young kids make goofy faces… people blink… I, too, miss focus), but most of the time it’s insanity. I end up with 5 great photos of the same thing.  From a professional standpoint… that’s not very marketable.  What client is going to buy 5 photos of everyone looking the same?  I’m standing there doing the same thing over and over again… yet expecting different photos!

Moreover, taking the same image over and over doesn’t help me keep storytelling with images. So what can I (or you) do to be better about truly storytelling with images?

Storytelling with Images by using a Different Angle

About two years ago I participated in a Project 52 challenge.  One where an instructor gave us one image or series of images to take on a theme each week.  I don’t remember much about this particular challenge as a whole, but I do remember this one assignment to try different angles. “Shoot the same scene from 4 different angles.”

Bronwyn Eating Lunch (15 Months)

Aeralind Eating Lunch

I’d been a hobbyist photographer for a decade at that point and not one of my art teachers had ever given me an assignment like that.  This one assignment more than likely is what set a fire inside me for lifestyle photography, to capture the mundane and messy in all these details to tell the real story of a life.  In fact, because of this assignment I went to being a prime/fixed focal length lens girl solely (rather than a zoom lens girl)  because I have to physically move to create the composition that I want.

Your Assignment

So I’m not going to waste a lot of words on this post.  I could tell you how changing your shooting angle will get you on the same level as a child.  Or that you’ll pull some beautiful catch lights into a subjects eyes if you have them look up at you with an overcast sky above.  Or that your favorite shot will likely be the second or third angle. But I’ll refrain, because I want you to discover your own perspective change.  So let’s get down to business, shall we?

Take a series of 3-5 images all of one scene and before each shutter click, physically move your body (don’t just zoom your lens) to a different position than the one you were in a moment ago.  Bonus points if you do more than one scene!

That’s it.  When you’re done post the series over in our Flickr Group for some friendly critique. Then come back here and let me know how this deceptively simple assignment changed your perspective on Storytelling with Images.