Vanishing Points and the like

*Kevin Meredith uses a LOMO LC-A to capture an image of a train station platform (*Hot Shots, ISBN: 9782888930273).  I love it because of the colour. I love it because of the tiny interesting details.  There's so much in this picture to admire and search through before you make up your mind.  Or else you might just see it as a weird vantage point of a boring drizzly day waiting for your train.  You'd be right, but you'd also be wrong.  

 

This is my point of view: Don't miss a trick. Look at everything, otherwise you'll miss everything. #justsaying

The first photograph I took after enrolling to study photography at school was taken at the harbour of my home town.  The tide was out and the harbour empty.  My peers were up on the wall above, looking down at the fishermen on the other side where the water was still lapping.  I was wandering alone in the wet sand, looking at shells and at the old wind and sea battered rowing boats. I looked up and saw a figure standing and looking down at me.  He was old with a white beard. A fisherman perhaps. I angled my camera upwards and took a shot.  What happened as I developed the film back at school was that I had captured something unconsciously that none of my peers had.  I had a completely different vantage point to them, and the rope leading your eyes from the boat I was standing with, to the old man leaning on the railing made my black and white image one of the best (maybe not technically) vanishing point photographs I took during my time on the course.  This experience of not thinking but yet still capturing a promising picture made me realise that I wanted to do this forever.

 

Since that time I have travelled to many places and taken many photographs, using many of the top tips shown in Kevin's book. Including contrast, coloured flash, using the rule of thirds, up-close composition and my favourite... capturing the unexpected.

So imagine yourself on a beach. The pier stretches out past you and into the choppy sea.  Birds are swooping, diving. Surfers are breaking the waves with their boards. I hand you a camera. Tell you to point, shoot. What happens? What do you see?