Introduction
Photography offers practical and concrete ways to reframe our perspectives, which can improve mindsets and promote resilience, hope and optimism. In this module, we’re shifting our relationships with the everyday objects in our lives. These perspective changes can enrich our experiences and helpus reframe challenges. Each time we consider what to include in a camera frame we make thesechanges from our own perspectives and experiences, we’re making deliberate choices about what tofocus on and how to see it. This practice has real-life parallels in the pursuit of happiness and well-being.
Objective #1
To reframe how we see and respond to the world and our experiences. To promote optimism and resilience.
Objective #2
To look at the subject from different angles and to experience what it means to see it from another point of view.
Prompts
Find the Light
Find an object that inspires you. Move around it and capture it in different light — side lighting, backlighting, and direct lighting.
Change of Focus
Fight the urge to photograph what you would normally capture. Choose a different aspect of your subject to direct your focus (ie. rose petals vs rose thorns).
Perfect Placement
Experiment with where you put the subject of the image in the frame — literally reframe it — let it be center stage and then in each corner separately.
Size Matters
Experiment with the subject taking up the whole of the frame or a very small part of the frame.
Perspective Taking
Explore your subject from different angles. Sit down low and take your photo from the ground looking up. Then, climb up high and take a photo of the subject from above looking down. Take the photo from the right, the left, and straight on. Take five photos – each a different angle.
Pro Tips
To experiment with light exposure, on an iPhone, tap the screen and drag the sun icon. Also try and switch when you would use wide-angle and portrait mode. Notice where you focus your camera. Notice where you put the subject in the viewfinder.
Reflection Questions
- How did changing the light influence the emotion of the photo you took?
- Think about how you focus, where in the frame you place the subject, and how large you make the subject, changes how you view your photo. What does it do to how you see your subject? How do you see other things in the frame? Can you think of how this module might help you reframe the way you see and respond to the world and your experiences?
- Describe how physically changing your perspective changed the image you made. How did this module shift your perspective or awareness of other perspectives given the same object being photographed?
