515 - Down Here Below



Yesterday morning I found Niels Henriksen’s blog entry “Photo Creativity Experiment - A Walking Stick Camera”. Niels describes how he used his monopod and a remote shutter release to get a very low view point. He let the camera dangle down to his feet or knees and remotely triggered it, without looking through the viewfinder, only approximately pointing in the right direction.

Hmm … I’ve bought a monopod last summer, even though I have never really used it, I have a cable release, thus I decided to give it a try. I used low perspectives as well as very high, and I really would like to know what people thought when they saw me 🙂

The lowdown? Success rates are not stellar, not at all. Be prepared to try the same shot more than once. Set your camera to continuous mode and always fire bursts, slowly moving the camera left and right, up and down, changing the angle. You really have to work hard to get a certain perspective. A Zigview with its remote option would help greatly.

Is it fun? You bet! This image was shot while walking and continuously shooting backwards. Probably the most random way to take a photograph, short of camera tossing 🙂

The Song of the Day is “Down Here Below” from Steve Earle’s 2007 album “Washington Square Serenade”. Fellow blogger Bill Birtch, photographer and Photoshop artist extraordinaire, used a song from this album on his blog. Thanks Bill.

See a live performance of this song on YouTube.


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