A Sense of Scale

Having a sense of scale in a photograph is critically important. I try when ever possible, to include a person (more than likely my assistant) within the photo. This not only provides a sense of scale to the photo but it also allows you the opportunity to interject some human interest.

It's my opinion that the photo here at the left would be less interesting without the 2 worker wearing yellow slickers below at the bottom of the frame.

I this situation, I had the use of walkie talkie's to communicate with the worker below. I was able to position them wherever I wanted and direct them to pose and gesture as needed. Basically I'm recreating an activity that you might see just waking through the facility.

I was shooting an annual report for a chemical company some years back on the gulf coast of Mississippi.

During the summer months you have these wonder sunsets on the gulf coast. I had a wonderful leading line of the pipe straight out to the ship being filled with product. Bay placing a worker in the photo, you see what I mean. Just put your finger over the worker, still a strong graphic shot but more interesting with someone in the shot.

This photo was taken for one of the many oil & gas clients I have. I shot this photo just east of Denver and because it was so close to my home, I was able to scout the location ahead of time. While scouting, I saw this composition and knew I just had to shoot it.

This pipe runs east and west and I wanted to take advantage of a sunrise for this shot. I had a compass with me and I took note of the excite compass heading the pipe was running. When I got back to my office, I went to the web for information relating to sunrise time and compass heading where the sun would rise. For that information, I head to USNO which stands for U.S. Naval Observatory. This online resource is wonderful, you simply plug in your location or the locations your traveling to and the information comes up instantly.

As it turned out, this pipe was running straight inline with the sunrise. Just got lucky! Before I leave on assignment, I check out USNO and print out the sunrise and sunset information for each of the locations I'm traveling to on assignment & vacation.