Low Angles

Hi all,

Haven't posted for a long while, but just looking at Phils great shot of the oystercatcher, I immediately started to think about the low angle of the shot...

Everytime I walk around our local lakes I look for a good vantage point to get low to the water...but there aren't any...the slope is too much...(as you would expect)

So the question is How do you get those shots?

Is it a matter of getting some chest waders and floating with some sort of support?
Do you lay down in the shallows and get wet?

Never having done it, low angle photography that is, I'm amazed at the idea and would like to try it...

Thanks for reading

Garry Bowden
www.photo-scotland.co.uk

If the lake is suitable, waiting untill after a prolonged period of rain can often help raise the water level sufficiently to allow a low camera angle from the land.

I have come across this problem myself and although yet to try it, I thought about a monopod in the water with an angle viewer? Don't know how feasible it is, but that was my thoughts for this scenario. Obviously, this would depend how high the bank was, and if it was too high, I'd try somewhere else.
Cheers, Graeme

i think there are few good articles on the web on wading. Personally, i lie in wait lying on the mudflats. Its best to go out during the transition from Low to High tide as that brings your subject closer to you. For river wading, i have tried using floating hides (google that term) and waders to great effect although do take note that if u do it in the tropics, u need to worry about poisonous snakes/insects and crocs!!!

The site where I do most of my bird photography is a shallow water wetland. I know it is shallow, because I designed it. The gradients vary between 1 in 25 and 1 in 50, and I am able to lie in the reeds close to water's-edge more or less at water level. Most of the "lakes" around east London are work-out, gravel pits and the edges are usually as steep as the machine operator can make them without the banks collapsing.

Getting into the water to take photographs does work, but I've never done it myself. If you are considering this, a word of warning; thigh-waders and chest-waders can be very dangerous. If you stumble or fall into a hole while in the water the waders will fill with water. Every year several people drown as a result of this type of incident. You are much better off getting a wetsuit or a dry suit, as worn by windsurfers and divers.