Look Behind You

Some advise that I once read has offered me expanded photographic opportunities - LOOK BEHIND YOU. In the beginning, I would have blinders on when photograph something and would only see what was in front of me. But I remembered this advice one day when I was shooting a sunset and turned around to see magnificent, pink, boiling cumulus clouds towering in the opposite direction of the sunset. Since then, after shooting something, I try to remember to turn slowly 360 degrees to see if there are any more good photo ops.

Once, floating a river, my husband and I were intently watching a black bear on the bank. As we silently drifted by, out of the other corner of his eye, my husband spotted another black bear on the opposite bank, that had been intently watching us as we watched the first bear. Because we failed to look around at intervals, we almost missed seeing the second bear.

I shot a sunrise this fall then looked around me and saw a small moth on some pretty yellow flowers and took the time to photograph that scene.

When the first group of students went to Yellowstone, and we were driving from our motel, the overcast scene before us was dull and gray. Fortunately, our van driver (Mark Moak, the other photography instructor) looked behind us in his rear-view mirror and saw a spectacular red sun. This provided the group a delightful half hour of shooting that would have been missed is Mark hadn't looked behind us.

Here are some links where photographers encourage you to LOOK BEHIND YOU. 

The photographer, Reed Hoffman, took his workshop class to photograph the Chicago skyline.

This is what they discovered behind them.


Another photographer,  Joe Baraban, shows a dozen good photos he took by turning around and looking behind himself. Here are a few examples.

Remember - LOOK BEHIND YOU!