2021 WEEK 22: Changing Your Point of View (POV)

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer

This week your challenge is to take a photo from a different point of view than you normally would. Technically “point of view” (or POV) in photography refers to the placement of the camera in relation to the subject. The vast majority of photos are taken from the eye level of the photographer, but changing your point of view, e.g. bird’s eye view, worm’s eye view, becoming the subject or shooting from the eye level of the subject, can create much more impactful photos. Even taking a step or two to the left or right can dramatically change the relationship of your foreground/subject with the background – which in turn changes the story that your photo tells.

2016 WEEK 36: GROUND LEVEL PERSPECTIVE by Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero

I recommend that you choose your POV after you have chosen your subject. The POV you choose should help you tell the story of your chosen subject. In the photo above, when I sat on the ground I realized that the dogs had a completely different view of the farmers market stands than I did as an adult human, so I decided to take the photo from their viewpoint.

2017 WEEK 33: Get Close! by Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero

I’m always looking for a different POV when I take photos of flowers and the textures on the backside of this sunflower really spoke to me. We rarely pay attention to the backs of flowers, so it’s a unique POV that hopefully makes the viewer think about what they themselves might be missing when they look at flowers.

Behind the Bandstand by Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero

The bandstand photo above is taken from the POV of the subject, i.e. the band itself. Usually concert photos focus on the performers, but in this case I was able to walk behind the bandstand and take a photo of the dancing concert goers, i.e. what the band members typically see. Taking the photo with the drum set and band members in the foreground helps give context to the scene.

As you can see from the above examples, your choice of subject can be just about anything. The point of this challenge is to change the way you view your subject to capture a unique POV. The following articles will provide you with additional information as well as examples:

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This week’s challenge summary:

Take a photo from a different point of view than you normally would. The POV you choose should help you tell the story of your chosen subject.
Post your photo during the week of Sunday, May 30 and Saturday, June 5.

The friendly community guidelines are pretty simple:

Take a new photo for the current weekly theme, not something from your back catalog or someone else’s image.
Post your photo each week to our active communities on Facebook or Flickr (or both). Tag the photo: #2021photochallenge #photochallenge #tempusaura
Don’t leave home without your camera. Participating in the 2021 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge is fun and easy.