You can change your emphasis to improve your mental outlook AND your photography. Learn why and how to do it. It’s easier than you think.
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How to Go from Mug Shots to Portraits
“I’ve put a copy of our mug book in everyone’s mailbox,” the development director at our school announced. “You’ll be able to match faces to names.”
“More like thug-book,” I muttered under my breath, immediately chagrinned that I’d voiced the thought out loud. Even if it were true. I’d grabbed my copy on the way to staff meeting, and a quick glance through it proved my theory.
Staff and students alike all looked as if we’d posed at the police station after committing a crime. I knew why, but as a new employee, I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. When the development director called me to her office for my mug shot, she had me stand against the wall while she stood in front of me and snapped a photo with her point-and-shoot camera.
All she lacked was a height chart on her wall. To her credit, she didn’t ask me to face right and left. But with one small change, she could have taken more flattering photos of each of us. If she would have asked us to sit in a chair whilst she stood, the photo’s outcome would have gone from mug shot to portrait.
When someone lines up a camera with our face and takes a photo, they capture us in a way we don’t normally see each other. Tall people, short people, medium-height people—we almost never see eye-to-eye with everyone. We have multiple perspectives, different lighting, different clothing, different environments.
Maybe that’s why driver’s license photos always look awful, too. We stand in front of a camera aimed directly at our face. The flash adds a harsh light, and we rarely feel proud of the results. This puts the emphasis on just one perspective—one that 99.9% of the people in the world don’t find flattering. I just threw a number out there, but really, how many people come back from the DMV raving about their driver’s license photo?
Change Your Perspective
This post is about learning to put emphasis on different perspectives—both behind the camera lens and when faced with an area in your life where you feel stuck. I’ll tackle the need to a changed emphasis in our perspective, first.
Many times, feeling stuck keeps us from making progress, or, even worse, it sends us spinning into regression. An attendee to an Al-Anon meeting in October of 1981 said it best, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
In other words, if we emphasize the same thing over and over in our lives, we won’t change our results. In fact, we won’t change.
If we emphasize the same thing over and over in our lives, we won't change. #change #perspective #selfcarehacks #write28days Click To TweetIf we tell ourselves, “I can’t do this (whatever ‘this’ might happen to be), we put emphasis on our lack of ability. By changing our mindset and adding the word ‘yet,’ we change our emphasis and start to see the problem differently. Next time you catch yourself saying, “I can’t do this!” tack on the word ‘yet’ at the end of your proclamation. “I can’t do this, yet!”
My Battle with Hoses
I find it really easy to tell myself I can’t do something—especially if I don’t really want to do that thing. Don’t laugh, but I have a hate-hate relationship with hoses. Hoses of all kinds—water hoses, air compressor hoses, panty hose, you get the picture. Nothing makes me feel hot and bothered quicker than trying to return a hose to its proper place (or putting pantyhose on).
Hoses have tubular twists and turns they like to keep—usually in opposition of what I want. They have comfortable ruts and get cranky (or kinked) when I try to make them go in a different direction. The last time I had a fight with a hose, my husband got involved. “Stop fighting the hose,” he told me. “Just see which way it wants to go and go with it.”
I didn’t appreciate his wisdom at the time, but twenty minutes later I realized hoses don’t have brains, but I do. A hose can’t control itself, but I can control myself. Once I stopped looking at the hose as my enemy, I found it easier to coil it back in its proper place. I still don’t enjoy hoses (they often have mud or dust all over them), but I don’t get angry anymore.
Our minds act as powerful tools to help us solve problems, come up with creative solutions, and change the way we think and act. Unfortunately, we often get stuck looking at problems head-on and we put all the emphasis on the big, the bad, and the ugly.
But what if we learned to put the emphasis on a different area?
Changing the Emphasis of an Embarrassing Situation
Several years ago, I had a humiliating experience at work. Even worse, my humiliation came from something my husband said in front of other staff members. I had two choices. I could sink into depression under the weight of my humiliation, or I could put my emphasis on what he really wanted to say. In all honesty, he didn’t mean to humiliate me, humiliation just happened to be my knee-jerk response to his comment.
It took me a good half hour to stop staring my humiliation in the face and choose to think about what he had said from a different perspective. Once I was able to put the emphasis on his words and not my feelings of humiliation, I understood he had a really good point. I had a blindness to my own microaggressions.
His comment launched me on a trajectory of personal growth. I will always feel gratitude for his honesty. It took a while to get over the sting of humiliation, but I kept my focus on the growth I needed instead ruminating on my feelings in the moment.
So, whether you do battle with small things or struggle with your big feelings, a change in emphasis can help you change your attitude and your results.
Our Point of View Determines Our Emphasis
Likewise, when taking photos, we should work the scene to find a different perspective. Most people take photos whilst standing. But what would happen if you squatted down? What part of your subject would you emphasize? How would it look different? And what would happen if, while taking photos of people, you asked them to sit? Or you stood on a rock or a stepstool?
Candid Photos
Good photography requires us to change the emphasis, the settings on our camera, and our point of view in order to tell the story we want to tell. I took some photos of my grandson this summer in Denali National Park with my iPhone. I didn’t have my DSLR handy, but I wanted to capture his enchantment with the fungi he found growing in a stump.
On my first attempt, I used the wide-angle lens and got too low. My poor grandson looks like he has a giant head. I changed my emphasis on the second shot by doing a semi-squat. I love the results—the camera captures his bright eyes, and his essential boyness—wet from jumping in puddles, gentle and not poking or breaking the fungi, and questioning why the fungi happen to grow right there.
Bring a Point of View with You
You determine the emphasis and the story you want your photo to tell. Change your perspective often to get optimum results. When photographing my daughter’s wedding, I took most of the shots while standing on an 18-in high step stool. Why? I’m shorter than both the bride and the groom and didn’t want to have a series of up-the-nose shots.
Tips for Wildlife
You’ll find you can change your point of view with landscapes and scenery pretty easy. After all, the landscape won’t hop or fly off just as you make an adjustment. With wildlife, I take one shot as soon as I see the animal or insect. Once I take the initial shot, I work on changing the emphasis.
If the wildlife cooperates, great. If not, I at least have the one shot. I’ve discovered that if I move slowly and quietly, I can often get very close to my subjects (not bears, of course) and take a series of shots. This toad looks pretty ho-hum in my first shot, but by moving slowly, I was able to lay on the ground in front of it and get a great shot that emphasized his cool eyes and the tiny flower in his mouth.
Your Turn to Choose Your Emphasis
It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you use, just get out there and try changing your point of view. Find an object and take your initial shot. Then, start changing your point of view and really search for the story.
Load the series onto your computer and decide which one you like the best. Post your before and after shots on my Self-Care Hacks Facebook page. If you’d like to add a line or two about a mental change in emphasis, I’d love to cheer you on!
Come Back Tomorrow
Tomorrow I’ll continue the Behind the Lens with a post on exasperation and equipment. Or maybe exasperating equipment.
Neat idea to change the height from which we take photos. Love the one of your grandson. (P. S. – I’ll add the link back here to my post when I get back to my computer. For some reason, I can’t get it to work on my iPad.)
Barbara Harper recently posted…How Can We Love Like Jesus?
Thank you!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…How to Work Around a Photography Predicament
I need all the help I can get with photography! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Michele Morin recently posted…Why Is Prayer in the Night So Important?
You’re welcome! I hope you find something to energize your photography!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…Energize Your Photography with Excellent Post-Processing
Anita, these points on perspective are absolutely brilliant! They can certainly be applied to everything in life including hoses and photography! By the way, I have a similar relationship with vacuum cleaners as you do with hoses. The attachments fall off on me, I get tangled in the cord, and I find the whole process so tedious. I have been reduced to tears on more than one occasion over vacuum cleaner struggles! And you know, while I am all about keeping proper perspective, I have literally never applied this theory to the vacuum! But I will now. Thanks for sharing your inspiring words wit us every week!
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
I’m soooo glad I’m not the only one with a hate relationship with inanimate objects! You made my day!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…SCH 038 Five Hacks to Help You Be a Better Parent Using the Do-Over
First of all, the idea that we need to change our perspective to change our results is GOLD!
And that toad picture! I don’t like toads, but that picture is amazing! I will always hold that picture in my head when it comes to perspective!
Rebecca Hastings recently posted…Do You Want More Prayer in Your Life?
Isn’t he a cute, dapper dude? There’s something about a changed perspective and a camera lens that helps bring out the beauty in even the most mundane things.
Anita Ojeda recently posted…How to Capture the Awe of a Spectacular Sunrise
This is so good for me. Just bought a new camera and the birds on the back porch are drawing me to take photos. But they move so quickly. I am learning. Many mistakes…many deletions. At least they are not on film to get developed only to find they are a blur. Anita, do you ever use a tripod? I am thinking about setting one up to be more ready for my birds.
~ linda recently posted…Cry Baby
Oh, I’m so excited about your new camera! I don’t use a tripod very often–mostly because I’m usually hiking around. I’ve never tried using one for bird photography, but I know many photographers who do!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…Do You Get Exasperated by Your Photography Equipment?
Dear Anita, I love the story about the hoses! Taking the ordinary and turning it into life lessons always resonate with me. I recently began reading “Marketing as Ministry” (Cowell). The author pushed the change in perspective even further as she writes about shifting the emphasis from ourselves to others. Looking at the world through different lens is definitely an area for me to continue improving upon. Thanks and blessings for the challenge and affirmation!
Alice Walters recently posted…Peace that passes understanding
That sounds like an excellent book, Alice!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…Do You Get Exasperated by Your Photography Equipment?
You are making me feel better about why I always dislike my drivers license photo. ha. Thanks for demonstrating what a difference our perspective can make in every way. I especially love these wedding photos!
Lisa notes recently posted…But It’s Mine! Why We Can’t Let Go {Bias Day 8} —Handling Our Loss Aversion
Aww, thank you! It was a fun wedding and a blast to take photos. I felt so pro ;).
Anita Ojeda recently posted…Energize Your Photography with Excellent Post-Processing
I feel the same way about my garden hose. I love this: “Our Point of View Determines Our Emphasis” I’ve also learned from photography that I have to understand my subject in order to determine the point of view they live from – and then I understand what I need to emphasize – forward, mid-field, defense soccer players – each requires a different point of view. The same with animals that take flight! I have to understand their movements in order to find the beautiful emphasis! I so enjoyed your discussion and pointers. Squatting since my spinal fusion surgery is so hard – but I am determined to meet what I need to emphasize!
Yes! You make a good point about needing to know our subject. I’ve gotten much better at photographing birds because I watch them so much ;). And garden hoses–my nemesis!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…How to Work Around a Photography Predicament
You would probably be appalled to hear I only take pictures with my phone!
Lauren Renee Sparks recently posted…Hurts so Good: Enduring Hard Things for Greater Good
Not appaled at all! Phones take really good photos!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…Why Do I Need to Learn How to Use the Tv Mode on My Camera?
Now I understand why standing photos taken by someone the same height never look good. My son was taking photos of me last night and they all look, blasé. Thanks. I will be changing my perspective about the camera perspective.
It’s amazing how a slight change can make all the difference!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…How to Make Changes in Your ISO Settings to Improve Your Photography
Anita, I love your posts on photography (mixed in with real life, of course). Changing the angle can make a shot stunning! I had never really thought, before, about how standing at the same level with someone else will make the shot less appealing. I’m so glad you shared that. It reminded me of a time when a friend took headshots of me, and she had me stand down a few steps so she could snap photos from above. They turned out great. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom here.
Thanks for stopping by, Jeanne!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…How to Work Around a Photography Predicament
I often take multiple pics, but I forget to go back and delete the bad ones. We didn’t do that before digital! Thanks for the tip on perspective.
Suzette Katopodes recently posted…Joyology 101: Why Make the Argument for Your Unworthiness of Heaven