Explore different angles of view

- Hey everybody, Sean Duggan here. This week on Mobile Photography Weekly, I wanna talk about a concept that I call beyond the first shot. And the idea behind this is that, a lot of times when I'm seeing people out photographing with their camera phones, they come across something interesting that they want to photograph, take the phone out of their pocket or their purse, raise it up, take a shot, maybe take another shot, and then they move on. So the idea here is to definitely take that first shot. That first shot is important because that's the picture that caused you to be inspired to make a photograph, to pull the phone out and take the picture, but once you've got that picture out of your system, move beyond that first shot and see what other alternate views you can discover.

And it doesn't take much time at all. When I was photographing this truck here and these bowling balls, I maybe spent five minutes (camera click) and I took a lot of pictures. (camera click) To my first shot here, was the overview of just the truck and the bowling balls, got a little bit closer, made the bowling balls in a little bit, you know, tighter into the shot that looked good. And then I got even closer still, got the camera (camera click) down low to the ground, (camera click) and I also have a mode here on this Walway camera, that is called white aperture mode, it's similar to the portrait mode on an iPhone, and that throws the background out of focus.

(camera click) So I tried that, that worked really good (camera click) to have the truck out of focus. And I just explored what was there. The fence provided a really good perspective line, (camera click) kind of a leading line going in there, (camera click) and of course there's bowling balls on the fence. (camera click) You know, what's up with all the bowling balls? I don't know, but I'll take it, it's cool, it's eclectic, I like it. And of course, you know, with this truck and the bowling balls, I also tried vertical compositions in addition to horizontal compositions. So whenever I find a really good picture I will often shoot it both ways because I never know how I might use it.

Sometimes if a picture is gonna be used as a book cover or a brochure cover or something like that, a vertical is good to have. And of course, with a subject like this, there's lots of great details and textures you can focus in on. Endless you know, the front of the truck, (camera click) getting down low. (camera click) So just move you camera around. Ask yourself what happens if I move the camera here. (camera click) What does this look like? And really it doesn't take hardly any time at all to do this. So the point is, get that first shot out of your system, (camera click) but then move beyond the first shot.

(camera click) And you'll probably find a lot better compositions. (camera click) In my experience with my own photography, it's very rare that the first shot I take of a subject is the one that I like. Usually I find my favorite shot beyond the first shot.