Photo Tip #5: Sometimes it Works to Shoot from Behind

Let's talk about where to stand when taking pictures. Actually, lets talk about when it works to shoot from a position where common sense says would be bad - from behind your subject.

More often than not, we want to see faces when we photograph people, whether or not they're looking at the camera. In fact, seriously strong images are made with subjects not looking into the lens (this is a different discussion). And to get faces, we need to be in front of our subjects. We've all seen, and made, bad photos that were taken from the back. No faces, no action, no scene, no story. Ooh.

But sometimes, behind the scene tells the story. Or an interesting piece of the story, or another perspective on the story. Like 2-year old DeMarcus Jackson walking away as he holds his mom's hand after she (Pfc. Addelia Jackson) arrives home from Iraq with the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team advance party. Or Ashley Perkins, left, and her niece Caroline Smith walking up the driveway after the tornado that hit Columbus in March 2007. There is emotion in their body language as they walk away from the camera.

Shooting from the back gave a bit of humor during a Columbus State University Sigma Kappa event in October 2007. (In the photo, Scott Couture and a female friend rub his freshly shaved head during the "Men of Kappa Sigma Shave to Save" fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.) And in yet another photo from the 2007 Habitat for Humanity Collegiate Challenge, a coed hammers away after mending her ripped britches with painters tape.

These muddy swimmers are Junior ROTC students who are maneuvering Malvesti Field, a training course at the Fort Benning Ranger Training Brigade. I took photos from in front of another group - laying on my belly and shooting straight in from down low. They make a nice combination of images.

And of course there is football. In covering a game, we shoot defense as well as offense, so we get behind the opposing quarterback to get our guys breaking through the line for the sack. And it is standard coverage to get a shot of quarterbacks making a hand off, passing from behind the line of scrimmage, or getting chased by the other bad guys. Then we have to run down field to catch up to the game action. Or maybe wait for the game action to come back to us.

Happy shooting.
Robin