Were are you shooting from?

90 whatever percent of all pictures are taken from a camera that is between 5 foot and 6 foot above the ground. Or eye level. One of the ways to make your shoots stand out is to take them from a different vantage point. Ether get higher or get lower. After I shoot my first engagement shot I thought I had done a great job. I had met the couple an hour before sunset when the light was nice and warm (warmer light = a bit more yellow or orange often looks good in pictures of people) I had gotten pictures I was happy with and the couple was happy with and in truth I was asking the pro what he thought of the pictures probably more to show what a good job I had done. He looked at the pictures for a moment or two then told me that they were all shot from the same perspective. I am 6'3" and the couple were a little shorter than I so all the shoots were taken from my eye leave slightly down. The framing and exposure were fine but there was something not quite pro about my shots. Being in California you see a movie star from time to time and I am always shocked by how short most of them are. Arnold looks tough on screen but he isn't that big of a guy. I was once with a group bolling when Seth Green came in. I was sitting and I was still taller than he was standing. So why do we think these people are taller? Because the photographer had the good since to crouch when shooting. I was at a skate park when I saw a young kid jumping off a half pipe. I asked him if he would be OK jumping over me if I was to lay down on the top of the half pipe. I used my Sigma 10-20mm lens because I was going to be so close to what I was shooting. So that the camera would not hesitate to focus when I wanted it to shoot I pre-focused for what I thought would be the right distance and turned on my flash because I wanted to shoot with the kid back lit by the sun. The kid is only about 3.5 feet in the air but because I am on the ground with the wide angle lens he looks higher. The picture posted earlier of the guy smoking I was also crouching as I wanted a blank background and there were the lights of the party behind him. If I just shot from my natural eye level there would have been too many distractions. So next time you go to take a picture of your child/cat/dog don't shot down instead get on the floor and shoot across.