Perspective and Lines….

I’ve always liked vanishing points and perspective, not only photography but in art, and just in life when you’re wandering around the countryside.

You can find them in arable fields, where the farmers leave long rows of potatoes or lines in the wheat.

If you have an old Roman road near you, that’s probably long and straight too. The above is a road on the moors near Scammonden which is effectively straight for 4 miles, with just a mild undulation here and there. So when you get a half decent sky-scape, you can get some wonderful perspective shots – the road providing an amazingly absorbing vanishing point.

Now before you all go out and start shooting the middle of the road, be warned that you may well die if you don’t pay attention!

The reason this road is suitable is the length of it, you can see cars either direction and spot cars well in advance.

The technique is pretty much traditional landscape, just get your ND grad filters on the sky, get low down and all that jazz.

For the more faint hearted (or sensible) of you, there are lines on the side of the road which you can use in more safety – it’s unusual to find 3 lines like this though. Very odd, and creates something a little different for a foreground.

And finally, if you find some junk on the road side, why not use it as a point of interest? This is a Nissan wheel cover thingy that was in the grass verge, so I just put it on the wall, made the wall and road have a shared vanishing point and moved the disc to sit in the foreground.

So there’s something to be said for roads if you’re a perspective junkie – they may not be as pretty as waterfalls, but you can certainly use them in your shots if you’re missing a strong subject.