Unique lighting conditions always provide a mixture of difficulties and opportunities.  This extreme side lighting in Monument Valley gave a luminous quality to those foreground flowers.  At the same time it left much of those distant rock forms in near shadow.  I enjoy this image the way it is but darkening the shadow areas into silhouettes is one possible solution to the problem. If it is a problem.  Remember I love shadows, but I do think the sidelight on those rock forms is interesting with a faint amount of detail.   Moving around those flowers, to the left or the right, would have changed not only the relationship of the flowers to the rest of the scene, but it also would have changed the contrast of the scene, or how the light and dark parts played off of one another.  We all have our own point of view.

There is no better time to think about spring photography than in the middle of the winter. Landscape photography in any season is more powerful if you say something about that season.

Flowering trees in Milwaukee County’s  Whitnal Park is a natural. This image has been successful and I believe that is due to the very reason that I made this picture. The sunlight shining on those warm colored trees on the other side of the pond, provide an equally warm reflection in that pond.  That adds some pop, which makes that area between the trees important instead of just empty.   It is our job to notice things like that reflection and how the sidelight affected the Monument Valley image.

I think a river overflowing with spring runoff, and a wide open view into that river, says quite a bit about spring in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  Add some new greenery and we get the point.  Point of view that is.

It is still winter north of the equator.  I love showing you winter shots of rivers or roads, but much like autumn, trees themselves are a worthy winter subject.

In both of the shots below, the snow-covered trees, the point of view that we see those trees, and the light they are photographed in, help make the image.  The use of wide-angle lenses from a position close to the trees, also helps make them more than ordinary. It should feel like you are in a cathedral.  It matters not that those same trees without the snow and in dull light might not be inspiring.  Inspiration in nature photography can come from a series of natural events like snow and morning light, as well as the point of view taken by the photographer.

How we the viewers of photography, look at things like flowers or even insects is also dependent on the decisions that photographers make.  This super close-up of a dragonfly certainly says something about some of the “parts” owned by dragonflies.  At least the eyes. A favorite close view of mine are these shots that are neither profile nor straight on. Sort of a ¾ shot. Of course depth of field becomes not only a part of the viewpoint, but a part of the problem.  In the end the picture is about both the dragonfly, and my own personal viewpoint. Partners you might say.

Of course the viewpoint of the photographer can become the viewpoint of all who see the photograph.   The photographer is in partnership with the subject, and is making personal decisions in how future viewers will “see” and “feel” about the image and the subject.

All wildlife images have a point of view or perspective.  One of the most powerful and most common, is putting the viewer at the same level as the subject.  In some respects it sort of humanizes the animal.

Making an eye level flight shot of this Ring-billed Gull was possible after I climbed the lake bank and therefore changed the perspective in which I and my camera resided.  Beyond physically climbing upward, other aids are long lenses which flatten perspectives, and shooting from a greater distance which has the same effect.

I needed to travel in the opposite direction to get myself and the viewer to a more eye level point of view with this Painted Turtle. For this image I had my tripod and myself spread to ground level.  Easy for the tripod, but more difficult for me. You rarely see a shot of a turtle that shows action. After making several static portraits I decided I would wait it out until the turtle began to walk. Surprisingly it took only a few minutes for her to get comfortable with me and begin its uphill walk to a nesting site.

We all have our own point of view.  That is pretty much true of each of us in every part of life.  Be true to your POV, even if you are like me and that viewpoint changes with time.  Life’s experiences will change the way we look at things. If those “things”  include a landscape, a bird or a dragonfly, so much the better