focal length: 70 mm
shutter speed: 1/80
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 640
flash: none

We were making pancakes yesterday for breakfast and I let the little one mix the batter as usual and as I sat down on the floor with her I saw an angle I wanted to photograph.

I knew I wanted to use a wide angle for the type of shot I was going for so first, I tried shooting slightly above her eye-level.

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/60
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 1250
flash: one speedlight on-camera bounced to the upper right

The wide angle makes it a bit interesting but still not quite what I wanted.

Let’s try getting lower.

Better.

Now let’s get closer just to try something different.

Ah, that’s more like it.

Here’s one more where I focused on her hand instead of on her face, which now tells the story in a different way.

With any given shooting situation, it’s a good idea to try shooting at many different angles and distances from the subject. You never know what it will look like until you try. I find this is especially true for wide or telephoto field of views since the image the camera can make is a distorted view of reality.

All the settings are exactly the same in all the images of the pancake mixer since I was manually setting exposure. However, each shot evokes a significantly different feeling simply by changing the focus, angle, or distance from the subject.

How many different shots of the same scene do you take at different angles? How has it worked for you?

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.