Tilting the Horizon

First of all, I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season... Happy Holidays from Elegant Edge Photography to each and every one of you!  During my holiday weekend, I played around with my camera a bit, and I was thinking about my style of shooting.  I shoot many different types of images for many different types of situations, but one thing is prevalent in the images that I shoot: I LOVE to tilt the horizon.  (Do not get this confused with tilt-shifting, another love of mine, which I will discuss at some point for sure!) This can be seen in many of my wedding photos:

LI Wedding

To me, the tilt adds an element of interest because it breaks away from the typical rectangular space that straight horizontal lines create.  Not to say, that images shot straight on lack anything, just that adding the tilt to some images adds variety for our couples to choose from.  I view landscapes in much the same way.  I do appreciate a beautiful landscape that is setup horizontally, and I have shot many successful images that way.  But I have also shot many tilted, and it creates an entirely different feel to the image.  It can add interest to an image that you would otherwise find mundane.  As an example, this weekend I was shooting cattails in Old Saybrook, CT with my friend, who is not a photographer but appreciates a nice photograph.  I shot a bunch as straight images and then I threw in a few tilted options.  As we were looking through them later, her eye was drawn more to the tilted ones than the straight on shots.  Here is my favorite image from the bunch:

Cattails, Old Saybrook CT

So come on, break from traditional landscapes and tilt the horizon.  You never know how it can affect the reception of your image.  Play around with the degree that you tilt the camera, and as always send us what you come back with and we will tell you what we think!

Anne

"Composition is the strongest way of seeing."- Edward Weston