The angle that refreshes...

**
ORIGINAL POST: 12 Sept 2008
**


Immediately after the new pharmacy students receive their white coats in such a ceremonial manner, they all adjourn to the lobby for a group photo on the big spiral staircase.

There were probably 200 people gathered around with their digicams to get a shot at the group of 60 new students...

...this is where I go hunting for NOT that photo. My boss got it as good as its ever going to be and we don't need two.

So, new angles sometimes mean:

I often give myself a hard time about "finding the new angle" that most haven't thought of before... but I've recently come to the conclusion that it isn't about the "new angle".

Rant warning:
After all, how many millions of people out there with a camera turn the shot up at 45degrees and call it a "style"... or even worse, call it a "new angle"! Look through Flickr... look through Facebook... its honestly what people do! They tilt the camera one way or another and its a new "angle"... as if they're giving us the perspective of someone who wears only one very heavy earring.

Now tell me ONE editor or serious journalist that would run a photo tilted 40degrees...

But, all that said, I still strive to find a new angle. Sometimes, that means climbing up or down and finding it...

...but recently I've learned that its not all about "camera location" as it is about what you're trying to convey - the story you're trying to tell.

This photo will appear in the paper on Friday:


Amongst the 300 or more photos I took that day of the new students receiving their white lab coats, shaking the hand of the Dean, interacting with people during the reception... the photo that will be used and printed thousands of times does not even have the students in focus...

Just goes to show you, keep your eyes open for the things that aren't immediately visible. When you go to approach something "from a new angle" keep in mind the figurative as well as the literal.
Even if it is the little kid who takes his mum's digicam out to the front of the crowd? That, too, evidently makes for a feature shot.

Stay tuned,
~Noah D.


PS: There are two versions of the photo with the kid. Off the record: I would have picked the other one. (Shhh... don't tell...)