Ground Level — Why?
Simply put it gives you more pleasing backgrounds.
Often in my workshops and tours, I deliberately keep requesting people to ask ‘WHY’ for all concepts and tips. For the ground level approach to bird photography, I again ask ‘WHY’ does it result in getting a cleaner background. The answer might be obvious to a lot of you but for those others who are just starting their journey as a photographer, the following question might help….
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Ever tried to search for a tiny thing like an earring or a screw or a needle on the floor?
The obvious approach is to immediately go down to the ground level and rest your head on the ground……..but why does that help? It helps simply because by changing your perspective you change the distance between the subject and the background and the greater this distance, the greater is the chance of the shallower DOF coming into play and that of the subject standing out.
Take the images above for example. The following illustration will show the difference in terms of background for both..
In the illustration where the photographer is standing up, the background consists of the ground immediately behind the bird. “Lesser the distance between subject and background, lesser the blur of the background.”
In the illustration where the photographer is lying down, the background is almost infinity (a significant distance away from the bird). “Greater the distance between subject and background, greater is the blur of the background.”
