Travel Photography: Changing Perspectives in Hawaii

You can stand in front of a beautiful scene and be bored photographing it. That happens, a lot, at least for me, when I’m in a touristy place. Brooklyn Bridge is nice but I’d rather shoot something else. Something that hasn’t been photographed millions of times. It’s also super annoying when you can’t get a good people-free shot.

On top of that, fences often limit you to a certain perspective. When I want to Waimea Canyon in Hawaii, we were perched on top of the canyon. I don’t have a wide-angle or telephoto lens so my shots were further limited.

After taking some landscape shots, I was bored. The scene was beautiful but I was tired of taking the same top-down photos.

The sky was interesting:

but even that couldn’t save the shot. I wanted to jump the fence and climb in the canyon.

Then, I remembered a video on composition. They said get low or high when you want to come at the scene in a unique way. Most people take a shot straight on, at eye level. Sometimes, just squatting could give you a more interesting photo.

There’s no way I can get high unless I climb on something. This means, I often find myself setting on the ground to take photos. Good thing I don’t care about looking silly.

Fortunately, the fences around Waimea Canyon were wide enough to shoot through. I got on my knees and pressed my camera against the fence.

Much better And, I wasn’t bored anymore. It was fun trying to find interesting ways to shoot the scene. Finding elements to photograph through. At calf level, I didn’t have to worry about people getting in my photo. No one was shooting low.