This trip to Newfoundland was the first time in my life that I saw an iceberg. Growing up in Africa does not particularly lend itself to being able to view icebergs. It was quite a site; something so unusual for me. When we arrive on a scene we can be so excited about what we see and about photographing the site that our photographic judgment is minimized by the excitement. This iceberg mesmerized me. I grabbed my camera and tripod and walked strait to the iceberg. Without much thought I started shooting. The iceberg was narrow and long with its narrow side facing me. One could barely see a split or opening in the middle of the long side. My images did not move me as much as the new experience of seeing the iceberg. As the excitement waned my photographic judgement started to kick in. I soon realized that the narrow view was not the best perspective to shoot.

          I had to change my position in order to change the perspective. The light was fading fast.  I flung my backpack over my shoulder, picked up my tripod and camera with the Canon 100-400mm L attached and started to run. The goal was to shoot the iceberg from the side rather than from the narrow view. I wanted the opening in the iceberg to be more visible. The shoreline behind the iceberg was rugged. As I moved towards the left the opening became more visible and I knew what I wanted to shoot. I wanted to place one of the rocks in the background right in the opening of the iceberg. Here is the shot:

This shot is soooo much better than the ones I started off with. Let's not be so fixated with what is in front of us that we forget to think about perspective and composition. Walk around. Get a sense of the place. Explore. Change your position to change the perspective. Shooting digital is free so shoot from many different perspectives. You will not believe the difference a few steps can make (if you have a wide angle lens on). With a telephoto lens one has to walk further to make a difference, but it is worth it.

Always look for the best perspective.