A challenge for so many when they put the camera to their eye is, “Do I shoot vertically or horizontally?” That is a real good question!
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Now if you’re shooting for the cover of a magazine, well, the question is answered for you. Since that’s not what I do (I’ve only been asked to shoot a cover once and that was a portrait) then the question is answered by….the subject. Yeah, the subject is what dictates to me if I turn the camera one way or the other. How does the subject have such power? It’s its story that we’re telling the should tell you which way to turn the camera.
This is a simple click of a dissipating thunderstorm over the house last night. What’s the subject? In the top photograph you have to scratch your head. That’s because I shot horizontally and the “junk” on the sides takes the eye in a different direction then to the subject. Now when you turn to the vertical image, the “junk” on the side has been removed so now the trees in the center of the photo reinforce the cloud that is the subject.
Landscape photography is really a concert of subtleties that when in sync adds up to big drama. I call it doing the dance, removing the elements that distract while including those elements that tell the story. In doing that dance, one tool you have to creating the drama is simply how you turn the camera!
Photos captured by D3s, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film