When I first started on my novel challenge last year, one of the first things I had to consider was “point of view”. Every story is told through the eyes of a character, but like our own lives that character will judge what they choose to relate see by our experiences, our past and our beliefs. Interestingly enough the same applies for a simple two-dimensional photograph.

My Christmas and early part of the new year was spent having a lot of fun with my new camera: a Nikon D70s. I love manual photography and originally purchased a Pentax K1000 in 2000 when I was living in Kelowna, BC. A couple of years ago I switched to digital and never looked back, but I still wanted the best of both worlds: A digital SLR. I wasn’t going to purchase one till I visited my friend Niall Brown in St, John’s NF. After I played with his D70, I was salivating; The camera haunted my dreams, I could barely sleep. Around Christmas I gave in.

Now, I’m not going to rave about the D70 (the D70s is pretty much the same thing), I’m going to talk about point of view in a photograph. I also recently signed up for an account at Shutterpoint, mostly to see how incredibly destroyed my ego would get once the professional photographers on the site started rating my photos. Naturally if you want buy a couple photos, go right ahead! I placed the following photos on the site and they received a couple hits each during the first three or four days. Nothing spectacular.

Then playing around with the photos with Corey Tomsons, I did the most unthinkable, I flipped the photos and sure enough, the photos immediately started receiving more hits. The modified photos are below.

The zebra made sense. Our eyes tend to want to look left to right. Anything looking right or at something (and we immediately start to imagine something to the right depending on the context) is much more attractive to the majority of people. In addition when the zebra is looking left your eye is encouraged to look at the black spot on its rump. Don’t know about you but the rump is not exactly the most attractive parts. Looking right you want to look more at the zebra’s face.

The potter’s wheel is somewhat different. With the original, the hands are to the left and the wheel turns anti-clockwise. Oddly, because you look at the hands and then the wheel, the wheel seems to be spinning slower. In the second modified image, the wheel seems to spinning faster and the hands trying to slow it down. The photo is much more dynamic.

It’s amazing what a two dimensional image can do to play with your mind, imagine what you could do with some words! Oh and if you’re curious about my first forays into digital SLR land, check out these photos of the Muttart Conservatory and Frosted Elk Island National Park.