When it comes to photography there are so many things to remember. It's getting the exposure right, making sure the light is on the subject in the correct way, the camera is steady, etc.

But what can often distinguish between your photo and the next person's is the angle the photo is taken from. And I'm not talking about whether you take the subject front on or side on; I am referring to either angling from low down to the ground or from a height.

Just changing the angle can change the whole look of the photo and the example I have chosen will hopefully portray this. Elephants are often very difficult to photograph and therefore we have to try different methods to create a unique effect. For this photo I chose to take the picture from as low as possible, firstly by placing my vehicle on an area lower than the subject and then also lowering my camera out of the door and focusing using the live view function.

By doing this, the photo now portrays the actual size of the elephants - making the person looking at the photo think that the elephant is about to stand on his head! This particular photo was taken with a Nikon D7000 with an 18-105mm lens set to 45mm. It was late afternoon and the light was beginning to fade so I cranked my ISO up to 1000, the aperture was set to f5 and the shutter speed was 1/200.

Expose your balance

Richard de Gouveia

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