Everyone who enjoys the craft of photography likes to put their own creative stamp on their work.  Nobody likes to turn out the same old stereotypical stuff that everyone else is doing.  This is becoming more and more difficult.  With the advent of digital photography it seems as though everyone is cranking out pictures.

One can go to great lengths to get a different look.  There are various special effect camera filters and exotic Photoshop techniques.  These are all well and good but the real key is to try and see the scene a little differently than the average snapshot shooter.  A very simple technique that I often employ to get a little different perspective on landscape photographs is to try a low camera angle. 

We all have a tendency to fall into routines and become creatures of habit.  If we have a camera in our hands and see a scene that intrigues us, we raise the camera to our eye and snap the picture.  I’ve found, over the years, that frequently just getting down lower will make a more interesting picture.  It puts more emphasis on the foreground and interesting nearby objects that put the scene in perspective and give it more dimension.  It’s amazing that just dropping to one knee and shooting the picture can change the perspective entirely and incorporate interesting foreground elements that otherwise would not have been in the image.  When using a tripod I frequently don’t extend the legs in order to keep the camera closer to the ground.  Sometimes, even lying flat on the ground when shooting landscapes yields interesting results.  The key is to experiment and have fun.  That’s the whole idea, isn’t it? 

I’ve pulled a few images out of my archives to illustrate the point.  The first two shots are from the California desert.  I think by getting low and incorporating rocks and vegetation into the foreground a much more interesting image was created than just shooting the distant landscapes. 

In the next image, from Bryce Canyon in Utah, I wanted to photograph the distant rock formations.  I got down low to emphasize the foreground and incorporate the downed tree which I thought created a nice “lead in” line.

It’s real difficult to take a picture of a lighthouse that’s a little different.  They’ve all been photographed so many times and have become so stereotyped.  In an effort to try and get a different perspective, I used a low camera angle to put the tall grass and wildflowers in the foreground.

So give it a try the next time you’re doing landscape photography.  You might just find that it helps you to see the world a little differently.