One of the key learning points from the previous exercise was about the importance of the users’ perspective in determining or re-shaping the functions of a building or space. This lead me smoothly to the theme of the second exercise which is all about the user’s point of view.
For this exercise I visited a number of places choosing those that are designed for a particular activity that is usually undertaken from a specific position or angle. I also looked out for any venues that might be designed for a specific type of user (whereby it would be necessary to use a non standard angle or position to capture their viewpoint).
My first visit was to a village vet surgery on a quiet afternoon.
When taking the photos I was trying to imagine what the place would look like from a dog’s point of view. We don’t know exactly what the dogs see but what we do know is that they see less colour (colour blind to red and green spectrum). Taking this into consideration I changed the colour balance of my images in the Photoshop.
A vet reception on a quiet afternoon must be a very boring place for dogs as there are no other dogs or people to say hello to. No wonder that our dog friend captured in the image is looking out onto the street. When taking this image I pretended for a moment to be another dog trying to image what it would be like from a dog’s point of view.
I thought that the second dog that is looking through the camera lens would be keen to get as close as possible to the dog captured in this picture. So I got next to the brown dog and got low on my knees to get the same level of view.
I also looked up for some information on the internet about dogs’ vision as I wanted to understand if we know how they might see the world around them. I found some article and adjusted the colour scheme of the image to match the descriptions in my internet sources (links included below).
My second image was taken at a local sport club. Sport activities, especially those that require a team or an opponent to participate, are the classic examples of the situations where a user’s position is strictly prescribed. Whilst getting ready to take this image I positioned myself at the far end of the badminton court serving box. I assumed a suitable posture / position and pressed the shutter button. I chose a wide-angle lens for this image because this is how I tend to observe the playing area around me during a game of badminton. I would usually keep an eye on the opponent but at the same time try to observe a wider picture. I think that the angle may differ depending on the activity. In some cases, such as ten pin bowling it might be more appropriate to use a medium telephoto lens to truly capture the filed of view of a player.
One thing I would like to have done to make this image more interesting is to capture an image featuring the opponent across the court. Unfortunately this opportunity did not materialise at the time but I think it would have definitely improve the image.
My next two images were taken at a lecture theatre in one of the university colleges. Here I decided to try and imagine what kind of picture a student and a lecturer would see. Again, the drawback here as in the previous shot is that the auditorium is empty whilst it would have been full of people when in use.
I am still glad that I tried to play with the idea of capturing the two different perspectives in one room as it suddenly opened up a whole range of project ideas for me. For example I thought of featuring the viewpoints of two people who are facing each other – they perspectives could be totally different!
Considering the drawbacks of the images taken in the lecture theatre, I decided to try a real life situation. My next image was taken from the co-pilot seat of an air ambulance helicopter which was at the time getting ready for a take off. All aviation routines are very specific and have to be observed to the letter so in my view this image is a good example of a user’s viewpoint (crew member’s). There are two airport staff outside of the helicopter landing area who are monitoring the take off (a procedure known as the fire check). Comparing the last three images, my preference is definitely with the lively and very real air ambulance shot which is a very good lessons on how to capture the user’s perspective properly. To take this photo I had to use a wide-angle lens as the space within the cabin is very tight – it simply would not have been possible to capture anything realistic with a telephoto lens.
My final image is taken from the point of view of a person sitting in the forest hide in the nature reserve. Although this image is very simple in the delivery and composition I think that the approach could be quite powerful and symbolical. I will definitely be looking out for the opportunities like that that might have an extra dimension (and a bit of symbolism). My observation is that this image does not probably tell us much about the actual user – we don’t know who this person might be so the image is open to interpretations!
Lessons learnt:
This exercise brought about some very interesting discoveries as well as some project ideas which I would be interested to explore.
Capturing the user’s viewpoint means considering height, orientation and the angle of view of the user.
It might include other considerations such as using colour or monochrome images, adjusting perspective and angle (wide or narrow).
It is always useful to consider the user’s perspective as it helps to imagine being ‘in somebody else’s shoes’ and convey their point of view. Honesty and truthfulness are important in photography.
Looking at the world around us from the different people’s perspectives might be a refreshing and useful exercise and an interesting project to explore.
User’s viewpoint can be captured by changing the position (getting low or high), colour scheme (colour blind people or animals), sharpness (partially sighted people), lens (wide-angle or telephoto).
The real life images appear to be much more interesting and gripping attention then those that are set up in some way.
Some images tell us more about the user than some others (comparing from example the forest hide shot to the air ambulance image). It is up to the photographer to chose the angle and the surroundings to help eliminate or add the necessary details.
