All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: Finding Beauty in Unlikely Places Part 2

Thank you all for all the shares and retweets of our last installment of “All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go”! :)

Last time we talked about seeing past what at object is and seeing the possibilities available to you in the texture and patterns that make up its surface. Today I want to talk to you about another way of seeing differently that is by simply looking more.

Take this ugly old building for example. (If you’ve heard us speak on this topic, then you’ve seen this photo and heard the story behind it. It’s an oldie, but a goodie.) If we use the principles we discussed before, there are several good photo ops to be seen while just looking at this building straight on. But when we’re looking for good locations, we don’t want to just look straight on at the scene before us.

Look from the side, get a bird’s eye view if you can, look up — challenge yourself to look at the scene from every possible angle and you might be surprised by what you find.

In this case, the overall scene was less than desirable, but from one particular angle, it was something that has been a favorite in our portfolio for the past 5 years and counting…

So this is my challenge to you: next time you’re out shooting, take the photo you intended to and then look around and see what else you can find before you have your subjects move on to the next place. You may just happen upon a personal favorite you weren’t expecting.

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