Presenting "Petrotrin"...

                   
                        Just would like to take this opportunity to post my last picture that I took this semester. I would like to present "Petrotrin" in south Trinidad. Petrotrin is an integrated Oil and Gas Company. It is a limited company that is wholly owned by the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Its principal activities are the exploration for, development of and production of hydrocarbons and the manufacturing and marketing of petroleum products.  

                         Petrotrin operates in land and marine acreage across the southern half of Trinidad. The registered office of the Company is located at Petrotrin Administation Building, Southern Main Road, Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad, West Indies. 


                         In order to get this photograph, I made my way along the Solomon Hochoy Highway, from San Fernando, where I reside. Petrotrin is located on the left side of the highway if you are travelling to the city of Port of Spain, Trinidad. You can see this spectacle a little bit off Gasparillo by pass. There is the quick sneak peeks of the lakes that are to the side of the highway, along with the factories in the little distance. It is a wonder to see in person, especially wonderful to take it in for yourself in the night. A professional camera would be able to capture the lovely view in the night with all the lights and the flames. 


                         I originally wanted to get the lights of the factory closer and with a little bit of light in the sky, maybe a bit after sunset, but when I saw the clear blue sky around 5pm that evening I immediately got to my feet and set out to get this picture if it was the last thing I did! Every attempt I had to get this picture was dulled by heavy downpours of rain and a very grey, clouded, dark, blinding sky. This was not acceptable for what I wanted in store for this capture. 


                         The camera was set to to many different settings. I tried sunset, candle setting, fireworks even. I ended up with the auto setting. Surprisingly it did the right contrast and the right mood for the picture. Automatic does have its perks sometimes. 
With all the advice I got from this semester from Youtube, Twitter, National Geographic and Instagram. With this picture I tried to do what I've failed at doing in some of my previous pictures, which is trying to get the horizon straight. In my opinion this is one of my best pieces of work. 


                        I am very glad I got this shot, and consider it photographer's luck. I had to take the picture quickly as we were on the shoulder of the highway and it is dangerous to remain there, especially when it is getting dark. The sky was unexpectedly red and very colourful. Look a little in the distance and you will see the factory. With my camera I would not have been able to get the lights, so I am glad it worked out this way and grateful that I got this shot of the lake and the shadows of the trees on the sunsetty sky. 


                       Social Media does have its perks and it is a very helpful tool to posess and to incorporate into your lifestyle. Especially in the ever so escalating world of photography and amateur photography. 

It has been a pleasure doing this blog this semester and I have learnt so much more than I thought I would. Also , the adventures I encountered while trying to get these photographs, whether they were successful or not, gave me memories I would not forget for a long time to come. Thank you for viewing my blog and look forward to updates from it in the future as I continue my journey as a young, budding photographer.

The Sun hangs like a Fiery Fist over the Ocean...

                   Even though the class is basically over, I still wanted to update my blog and show what little pictures I have left....

                    For this post I tried reflection photography. Initially it was meant to be about birds, as I visited the Caroni Bird Sanctuary. 

                    Photographing reflections can be extremely rewarding and produce stunning results, but sometimes achieving those dramatic shots can be harder than first thought.


                    I went in the evening, around after 4, and while taking the boat ride, the sun began to descend. 

According to a photographer, it would be best to try and go when the light is at its best; either bright and early, or in the evening as the sun is setting. 


                  When the tour guide stopped the boat in the middle of a clearing, you could hear all the birds flying around, gathering themselves and their families to their destined homes or nests in the trees. The stillness of the water had a very neat and serene view of the sun and its reflection in the water.  According to Nathan Cohen, a photographer whom I gathered some tips from on reflection photography, he said, "The best reflection shots happen with well illuminated subjects against the clear blue sky. That means the sun should not be in front but in the back of your position"...
I...... did not take that advice, I wanted to risk it and take a chance of capturing the sun and its reflection, rather than the objects that the sun shun on.

               He also said that often, but not always, the best shots are with still water. And the best candidates for still water are very shallow ponds, and especially puddles.

             "Teach yourself to see the reflection rather than the water. It takes a bit of effort IMO. Learn from others experience and mistakes"....

              "The strongest reflections tend to be when light is relatively low and direct on the object you want to see reflected, but not directly on the surface you want to see the reflections in. That is, the mountain in light and the water without direct light. But that's no hard and fast rule. If you have good conditions, the angle for shooting can be largely a result of your compositional choices. Let your eye guide you as much as the science". 



                                http://photo.net/nature-photography-forum/005thn

I liked this site for showing some great examples of reflection photography.

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGall2.asp?catID=1325

but out of all of those, I like this one the best...

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?photoID=512460&catID=1325&contestCatID=&rowNumber=9&camID=

This site also had a great deal of tips and guidelines to follow.

http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/composition-articles/quick-tip-4-steps-to-remarkable-reflection-photography/

These are some more astonishing examples of reflection photography:

                                            

#reflection #photography #amateur #love  #passion  #sun #caroni #trinidad

Euphoria...

       
              Laughter and happiness take many forms. It causes so many different feelings of euphoria. The ones we're  most familiar with are that of humans and animals. With animals, I think dogs show the most affection and gratification for when you greet them. They instantly return the favour and greet you back +500%. 

                I am trying my hand at black and white photography and moving my safe zone of landscapes and moving forward to animals. People would be my last challenge. 

                There is something particular you must take into consideration when applying black and white to a photograph. Not all pictures can hold the essence that you would like with a black and white setting. 

                  A tip most photographers said was to have a lot of contrast in your picture so that the image that you want to pop out will stand out. Natural lighting can help but sometimes you can use your flash to add to the feeling you want to set. If you are without equipment, a simple umbrella would do to block out the sunlight. The less light, the softer the image, the brighter the image, the more sharp and rough and alert the picture will adapt to.

                 Another tip was to not put your digital camera on B+W mode, which some cameras have, because it might take away some of the "colour" to the image. It is advised to take the picture as usual, then to download it into Photoshop and edit it in black and white from there. 

                It is also advised not to interfere with the image too much as it would take away from the original effect of the picture. 


"Black and white portraits are supposed to be simple, and in their truest form only adaptations of light, contrast, perspective and texture."



Take a look at this website that gives so much more information and tips than I could ever reiterate. 


http://www.howitookit.com/?p=1797


This photo here on this post, is my experiment with an animal but in B+W photography, with the aid of these websites and the use of Youtube as channel of social media.

followed by

Without social media, it would be very difficult or almost near to impossible to gather all this valuable, important information readily at hand nor will I be able to share my work and trials and errors with the community at large, my friends, family or persons on social media sites such as facebook. This gives me opportunities that persons 20 years ago could have never even dreamt of!

Will Continue To Remain A Lucky Mystery....

Hey there folks....




                So, for this post I decided to share a picture I took not too long ago on a beach in Tobago. I know this blog is intended for pictures taken THIS semester, but as I AM limited I would like to show you all this. In my opinion it is a rare photo. 

               The name of the beach is Turtle Beach and as I was sitting there wrapped in my hotel towel on one of the beach chairs, I saw this weird bug on my leg; I had no idea how it reached there and what exactly it was, I don't even know if I should categorize it as a bug!! It made its way unto my pink towel and got caught in the fuzzy stuff. I just stared at it, afraid to even move or furthermore BLINK!!

              I looked down and saw it making its way across, crawling and finally approaching my leg. My camera was in my hand from taking pictures of my mother in the water. My first reaction or reflex was to flick it off, scream and run away, but somehow I found it to be so weird and unique that I had to resist my normal female urges to freak out.

            I set the camera on my favourite 'macro' setting and got the creature. I put the lens so close to it that I was afraid I would scare it and it would either run off and bite/ sting me. I then proceeded to carefully let it off my skin and get as far away from it as possible! I zoomed in and out of the picture frequently after that, not believing my eyes. I showed my mother, aunts and everyone else who was on site. They also found the creature to be very queer. 

            I could not decipher if it was a spider or bug or what!! I researched it and they had none of the sort available or that were a complete match; there were similar ones but none were the same as the one I captured. The closest one to it was a rare species of spiders found in the AMAZON!! This made me even more curious as to what that living thing actually was, and I considered myself lucky; but up till this day I still have no idea what it was. I am still left clueless but in awe of how beautiful this tiny thing was. It was smaller than my finger nails to boot!

             I am just so thrilled to get this shot and so grateful that it did not sting me or probably kill me. Just kidding.. but then again, we don't know what it was capable of. 


Take a look and tell me what you think..

(I even think that it has a cartoon face drawn on it ^_^ )

Examine it for yourself.

The Sky Cries Aloud, Sensing the Coming Storm Amidst....

DARK CLOUDS

There's a dark cloud overhead

As if brought by a storm

But this cloud will not shift

And more clouds begin to form

The darkness lurks above

Bringing sorrow into the air

The fog begins to appear

As my heart starts to tear

The night falls apart 

In my shaking hands

Nothing can be repaired

In these despair-filled lands

I fall to my knees 

And beg for happiness

As the world crumbles down

I am lost in the darkness

-- Allyson Gordon

                        Recently I found myself loving poetry and linking them with photography. This picture was taken at Maracas Beach. In previous posts I mentioned here and the other shots that I got. Here I will share two pictures that I got here also. I might post 2 pictures in one post from here on, seeing as we are coming to the end of the semester, and I wouldn't want to waste my effort from the other pictures I took without displaying them. 

                        Below is the shot I took in between some coconut trees. The sky was overcast and rain was about to fall when I took this picture. I set the camera to the "Beach" setting which boosts the colour and sunlight in the photograph. The coconut trees look brighter, along with the sand, which highlights the darkness of the approaching rainclouds that were about to burst at any second.

I like this picture because of the natural contrast it has with the sunlight and the clouds, the pathway of the trees on the sand and the amount of greenery that is seen on the beach. Also, I love the character the trees give, as their stems are not fixed, perfectly straight, but are bent and winding, giving some personality to each one of them.

Another picture that I took this same day was just a coconut tree alone, while I was hiding from the blazing sun, under a coconut tree, fearful for my life; wondering of a coconut would fall on my head and put me into a coma; sorry I'm just kidding. I was relaxing with the soothing sound of the crashing waves and the constant cool breeze that hits your skin and passes through your hair while on this beach. I remembered a trick or guide that I acquired from previous investigation and research from photographers guidelines and tips. It deals with angles. 

I mentioned this in my previous post with the waves crashing over the rock. This was the same time that I was at the beach and was attempting to put the unusual angles to work, and see what interesting pictures I could possibly attain.

I stuck with low angles and twisting them. I bent in a weird twisted position as I put the camera to the bottom of a coconut tree, facing up. I tilted the camera so that the tree's branches would block out the sunlight. In this shot, I also used the beach setting for extra bright and colourful booms. 

I took a good few, but liked this one the most. 

If you would like to see my entire album, check out my Facebook Fanpage with these photos and more.

https://www.facebook.com/PhotographyInItsEssence?ref=ts&fref=ts

(Please note some of the pictures on the fan page have not been posted up here yet, so as not not spoil the surprises to come... just take a peek at the album there..)

Away! away! for I will fly to thee...

                        Welcome back!!!!


           Today I decided to go with another approach and to do a vidblog. This video is based around my trip to The Wild Fowl Trust, which is the same place I visited last, in my previous blog. 

           The following would be a little summary of the content that is in the video, for those who don't have the time to listen. Also, the video is very soft, and you might have to listen to it with headphone or with your volume on high, my microphones don't pick up sound that very well. 

For the remaining weeks I will post the captures that I got during the semester from the Wild fowl trust, Caroni Swamp, Petrotrin, Tobago and Maracas.

Today I will share another picture I took in The Wild Fowl trust. It is one of the birds there. While I was passing, it was bathing in one of the ponds and was shaking it’s feathers a lot, it was about to take flight when I hustled to get the picture.

 My mistake was to not have my camera readily at hand. I set the camera quickly to sport, which usually helps to capture an object in motion. The downside to this though, is usually you get grains on the image. This is called noise. If you look closely at the image you would see spots, or grains and it spoils the quality of the image. Luckily I did not get much noise for this shot, but one side of the bird’s wings was blurred completely. I would say about 70% of it’s body was in focus though. Unless  I had a professional camera, it would be veryyy difficult to get this entire bird still and in focus. 

This is the shot of the bird I got. It is not a picture to be all hyped about, but I gave it a try. 

I will have a few more videos up soon, so look out for them. 

As Freedom...

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--

When he beats his bars and he would be free;

It is not a carol of joy or glee'

But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,

But a plea, that upward to heaven he flings--

I know why the caged bird sings!

- from "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Until then, be creative in whatever you do, and don’t forget to see the beauty in everything that surrounds you.

Bad News...

Just a little update... 


My camera.. has officially been put out of use. I do believe it is has reached the end of its days. I need to carry it to fix as soon as possible. I honestly do not know what happened or how it did, but the lens won't open. 

I guess I will have to make funeral arrangements for it :( 

Luckily though, I have a few shots I took from this semester still in store so I would use those for my last posts. 

I was going to experiment with black and white and old buildings this week, but seeing as this dilemma has risen, I cannot do so. 

This situation was unforeseen and I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been supporting me and viewing my blogs, it is very much appreciated, and sorry for the inconvenience... 



Till the next post....

The Pathway of Life...

                           Guess who visited Wild Fowl Trust this weekend????? This person did!!! 



                           The Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust, now in its 47th year, is an independent, nation, non-profit, environmental, non-government, volunteer, membership organization, encompassing two lakes and about 30 hectares of land within a major petrochemical and oil refining complex, PETROTRIN.


If you would like to visit them, their website is http://www.papwildfowltrust.org/

                                                                           

You can get all the information you wish or need there. You would enjoy your journey, it is a different experience that you can get right here, south of our homeland, beautiful Trinidad. 

To drive to the Trust from Port of Spain or San Fernando, leave the Uriah Butler- Solomon Hochoy Highway at the Gasparillo exit and follow the signs to the Petrotrin Oil Refinery. On public transport, take a Port of Spain- San Fernando maxi, route taxi or bus, and get out at the Gasparillo exit, from where the refinery is a two- minute walk. Once inside, it's another fifteen-minute walk to the Trust. The best time to visit is before 11 am or after 3pm. 


                            In later posts, I shall post a capture I got of Petrotrin for all to see, even though it was more of a sunset, beauty shot, it did not capture the actual refinery and the industry itself. Further information will be added to that post, for now, the focus is the Wild Fowl Trust. 

                           I once came here before when I was secondary school for a Geography project or SBA I believe. Here, consists of 250, 000 square metres of attractively landscaped grounds that are home to many rare species of bird, including the wild Muscovy duck, the red- billed whistling duck and white- cheeked pintail. Some of the rarer birds, including scarlet ibis, are caged to allow breeding programmes to continue. 

                       After seeing all the birds, peacocks and the lovely pond with the rainy, gloomy weather, I took some shots, but found this one to be interesting. In trying to incorporate the rule of thirds that I learnt as a tip or guide from professional photographers; either from reading online, getting tips from the National Geographic and even Youtube, I tried to apply it, In my opinion, I believe I was successful. 

                       The rule of thirds simply states that you imagine the object or landscape that you wish to photograph and picture a tic- tac- toe. Imagine your viewfinder of LCD monitor divided into nine equal-size squares, like a tic- tac - toe grid. You are to try to compose your picture with your subject positioned at one of the four intersecting points. This in turn will then help you as a photographer to compose more aesthetic portraits. 

                      This is what I tried to achieve here. I did not focus the walkway to the center of the picture, but to the side. The arch like bush was at a point and the walkway was at a point. I refused to repeat my previous mistake of just taking photos with the objects focused to the center. Using social media I got a great deal of options to choose from in order to get advice; the best so far has been Youtube. 

This photo tip put into shorter terms is :

"By placing the most important part of a picture dead center in the frame, it is usually not very appealing. Remember the Rule of Thirds and seek a composition that strikes a balance between the strongest element and open areas, which will usually lead to a more successful image."
 --  Raymond Gehman, National Geographic



                 I came across a this poem that made me think about this picture. They gave so much more feeling and depth for me that aided the emotions that I want evoked in this capture. 

" Into the stilly woods I go,

Where the shades are deep and the wind-flowers blow,

And the hours are dreamy and lone and long,

And the power of silence is greater than song." 

--W.W. Campbell

    The Pathway of Life

"As you travel the pathway of life,
don't trample the flowers beneath your feet and if you dare,
stop a while, gaze upon them in their splendor.
Breathe deeply, smell the bouquet of the tender blossoms they bare .

As you travel the pathway of life,
pause a second and look at the reflection in the mirror.
What do you see; the person you have become,
or the person you strive to be, can it be any clearer.

As you travel the pathway of life,
take time to thank God for the things He has provided,
and the many blessings He has bestowed upon you;
no longer to worry about matters left undecided.

As you travel the pathway of life,
for just one brief moment, forget the misery in the world.
Contemplate the goodness in your fellowman,
and not the evil you see them begin to unfurl.

As you travel the pathway of life,
Stop and say hello to a stranger today, give it a try.
Watch their eyes light up and sparkle with a glow,
that can only be extinguished if you pass them by.

As you travel the pathway of life,
relish the time you spend with your family and friends.
Life is too short not to take delight in them while they are here.
Set your priorities, for one day their precious life will end.

As you travel the pathway of life,
spread a blanket beneath that majestic old oak tree with care.
See the initials etched with fondness; hear the secrets his leaves whisper.
Savor the memories left behind for you and that old tree to share.

As you travel the pathway of life,
I hope you can hear what my words are saying to you.
Use the time God has given to you on earth,
and focus on the really important things in your life to pursue." 

--Sylvia

Along with the National Geographic as a guide, this Youtube video also helped me a significant bit. 

                                                       

You should check it out too!!!

Imagination at play...

                        Sometimes shooting random objects can be a plus. People always look for the obvious: sunsets, landscape of mountains and greenery; just basic landscape and scenery. 

                        A mistake most amateur photographers make is to put the object that they are capturing in the dead center of the image. 

                        Unfortunately that was a mistake I made this time. I did not angle the picture better. I could have made more use of it and do a lower angle and capture probably a bird that was nearby in flight with the splashing of the waves in the background, or simply the sea or placing of the lighting of the sun.  

                         At the moment I took this I did not think of all that, it was only after the fact that I left the area, well the island actually, because it was in Pigeon Point, Tobago. As I was viewing the pictures on the computer I realised the potential it could have had. I only wanted to capture the strange looking tree? It was so strange looking to me. It was also humungous. A friend of mine thought, at first that it was a very large coral. I found at first though, that it looked somewhat like a skeleton of a huge animal, such as an elephant? , but that is just our imaginations at play. That is exactly one of the effects you would want on an audience, which is to put a little bit of suspense into it. 

http://thenoblewanderer.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/random-photos-inanimate-objects/

The above website is an example of some of the creative ideas one could try to incorporate into their photography when it pertains to shooting random objects. The trick behind it is not to be random at all, but to put  some thought into what you are photographing. 

One example is the two coolers on the sand, seeming like they are on a picnic on the beach. While their owners are taking a swim, the photographer snapped the objects alone, as if they were life like and wanted to portray or get the feeling that the coolers were on a date. 

Some questions you should always ask before taking a picture as such would be :

- What is the primary theme or subject?

- What mood am I hoping to create?

- Does the background contribute to or take away from the subject matter?

- Where is the light coming from?

- What would make my photo different from all others?

By approaching every photo with a simple objective, you'll inevitably end up with better photos!!

The Light and Life of the Sun, Making Wine of the Blue Air and Sea...

           

              Here we are again folks! I have managed to get another capture that I love and certainly would frame and put up on my wall. This journey landed me in Trinidad's beautiful twin isle, Tobago. Though Trinidad has its majestic locations and is a wonder on its own, it is not complete without the breathtaking places, culture and people in Tobago. As anyone can conclude by now, it is obvious that I'm a landscape kinda 'gal'. I don't particularly do well with photographing people, but I have a passion for landscape scenery and animals! 

       
              As I was taking my evening bath in one of the most popular beaches in Tobago, called Store Bay, I basked in the setting sun and soaked up in the clear, serene waters of this island. I then noticed that the sun's rays were in a particular focal point in the sky, and it was not like the red and mystical colours were forming and spreading out as yet; it was different, and I loved it. I was getting so caught up in the peacefulness of its aura that I almost forgot to take a snap of it! 

             As usual, there was some exciting drama to take out my capture! Life passes us by so fast that it is difficult sometimes to just get a still of what pulls everything together and makes it beautiful. I quickly swam out to the shore, trying to beat the clouds as they were passing by, I was worried that I would miss it. My heart raced as I swam, arms going left, right, left and right; taking a gasp here and there. I tried not to wet the camera, seeing as it is my only one! Trying ever so hard to get the horizon straight and keep my hand still from the adrenaline rush that I was experiencing, I took off the automatic setting and set it to landscape. There is a 'smartcapture' setting that I use a lot but this time I could have chosen 'Sunset' but I preferred for this picture to be a little dark and not too bright for the ray of light effect. Funny enough, point and shoot cameras come with almost the option for everything these days, paving the way for amateur photographers like myself. The secret to being a photographer though, is not having an expensive camera that costs more than your car, it helps, but it is the creativity of it all, being able to form life out of something dull, making what others see as dirt or old into something majestic and wonderful that evokes feeling and creativity. 
  
             To get great sunset pictures, you must be able to control your camera manually. The use of fast shutter speeds, closing the aperture and setting the ISO to the lowest possible. A tip is to include subjects and get to the location before the sun is completely gone. For this image, I used the yacht.  A good time to be there is half an hour before a sunset; there the vast array of colours will shoot into the sky and light will refract and bend in so many colourful ways amongst the clouds. You never know what you can find, clouds have an energy of their own. Experiment and you would quickly find out what works for you as an individual and what meshes with your own style. 



             

Subscribing to Youtube channels such as the "Ultimate Photoguide' has some perks in it. I get some tips and go out and try some.  

Also watching some videos such as these on the same site, Youtube.

One thing that I am looking to buy is a tripod so I can steady my shots and an unstable, nervous, sweaty and shaky hand won't interfere with my photographs. Most of these sites and photographers tips is to have one, so sometime in the future I'm investing in one. I am positive it would make a great, significant improvement. 

I also created a flickr account where anyone could check out my pictures. I won't link them yet until I created my portfolio with the pictures that I want to be shown alone. 

I also posted this picture to my Facebook page. Remember to take a look at it for all the pictures that I took so far, if you do not wish to look at them here. 

https://www.facebook.com/PhotographyInItsEssence?ref=ts&fref=ts

Until next time...

 Enjoy your day and keep an eye out for the little wonders and beauty of life that surrounds you..

Send Me A Post Card!!

   

             Hey y'all! Sadly this past week and then some, my laptop has been down; got a virus and was flashed. AKA.. I lost ALL my stuff!! But I saved what little little I could. So that means that this week, I did not get a good picture either. All I had on me was my iPod which has basically like 2MP (megapixels) and takes horrible quality pictures. 


            As I was on my way to the grocery earlier this week, it was around sunset, and I was stuck in traffic. To the side of me, was a pretty decent shot, if I was higher off the ground and if I had a decent enough camera; my point and shoot Kodak would have sufficed. I was left with the option of, -- to take a grainy picture or to --  just leave it let it be and carry on; but you know me!!! ... I still wanted it, at least the idea and potential of the image could still be imagined.


            Here's the capture... It's nothing big, but would have been wonderful with my camera :( 

              This weekend I will be in Tobago, and most definitely would have my camera on me, and there would be some lovely settings and opportunities to take magnificent pictures in our wonderful twin isle. I shall share the beautiful pictures that I wish to take next week, the images WILL please your eyes, I can guarantee that ;) 


         Until then, I am short changed so, I was back on some posts because of no laptop. When I look at this picture, I see the resemblance to some postcards that they have in some tourist shops so people can post their loved ones; that's just me though. 

      

Splash your troubles away...

             

                  How LOW can YOU go?? This is a question that should always be in the back of your head as a photographer, as well as some other unusual questions. In photography, angles mean almost everything! It changes the mood and perception of a picture; it can either make the image more captivating or turn the other direction and leave the viewer lost. Be careful when doing this, because the wrong angle can confuse its audience; sometimes the image might be lost in trying to capture it, because the viewer can no longer tell what the object really is. 

                 In landscape photography, there are three elements pertaining to distance: the foreground, mid-ground and background. A lovely technique to use, and one of my personal favourites is to take a picture from the fore-ground; that is, taking an object closest to you, going down to that level and snapping the picture. It makes the picture interesting and gives it a little more mystery to it.

                 One of the reasons for having an element present in the foreground of your photo is to make the viewer of the photograph feel like they're there, because they can see the depth of what's close and what's far away. It basically 'sucks' them into the scene, and that is what you want as a photographer. 

                  Weekend past, I visited the lovely Maracas Bay, where I took several shots that all led to this one being my most favourite. Sadly I did not get sufficient time to experiment with this angle because I only saw the potential of this as I was on the road and about to leave. I jumped out the car, ran through a crowd of intoxicated Indian men who were stirring up some curry and went slippers first, into the crashing waves. Clothes on, camera ready in hand, and gleaming eyes, I took the risk of snapping this picture right before the wave soaked me entirely.
 Please Note: My camera IS NOT... WATER PROOF. 

            I was ecstatic to see my result.. and I was indeed happy with it.

                      
                                                            Sometimes the angle makes all the difference...


                         http://digital-photography-school.com/20-examples-of-low-angle-photography



                                                                                       and

               




                The above sites, gave me some ideas for my picture. Low photography is almost all the time...wonderful. They also give some wonderful examples of low angled photography, that also gave me the inspiration I needed for this.