Angle of View

Golden Silk Orbweaver

A few days ago I was reminded of how important it is to be mindful of your angle of view.  I apologize in advance to any of you that don't like photos of spiders, but I found a couple Golden Silk Orbweavers and had some fun photographing them.  When I found the first one, I shot the spider head on, since that's the angle I had available to me with a clean background.  But the lighting made the webbing all but disappear, so I had to leave some of the spider's "leftovers" in the frame to give the photo some context.

Golden Silk Orbweaver

Later that day I found another one, and initially, I began photographing it from a similar angle, happy to have the web somewhat more visible.  But then I noticed that the spider was in the process of eating breakfast, and a different angle might allow the spider's prey to be more visible.  And from a different angle, the spider's web also became wonderful.  

Golden Silk Orbweaver

Golden Silk Orbweaver

So it reminded me of the importance of choosing your angle of view to give you the background you want and the most interesting compositional design you can have.