Week 45.2008: Wooden Shoes and Windmills

One of my first shots that I took after getting to Amsterdam was Wooden Shoes and Windmills while we were looking around a gift shop after dinner. In the back of the shop was a rack of wooden shoes from ceiling to floor in rows of different colors. Since I wasn't interested in anything the shop was selling and my friend was I took the time to find a shot I liked in the pattern of the shoes. I settled on this shot strictly on a like / dislike basis. It was only later, while looking through my library, that I noticed that many of my shots are from this angle, below, and I started to ask myself why. The simple answer is because of the wow effect. Photos that are shot in ways that we don't normally see the world cause us to go "wow". I think that because I'm a fairly tall person and am used to seeing things from above that photos that look up at things give me that wow effect. Knowing this isn't going to stop me from taking them (in fact I was crawling around in the mud today taking photos) but understanding why I like them my help me to take better photographs.