PROJECT: The View From Below
- At February 01, 2008
- By Neil Creek
- In Experimental, Feature, Projects, Tutorial
6
This project has concluded. You can see the results here.
Photography Project
Photographs taken with the camera no more than 30cm above the ground.
The vast majority of photos are taken at an ‘altitude’ of about four to six feet above the ground – the standing height of most photographers. Because this point of view is so familiar, breaking out of it can result in powerful and memorable images. A low perspective in portraits can make the subject look powerful or imposing, in landscapes the close environment can be set against the distant, and for special effects the unique perspective can be striking.
What is the project?
As a photographer, it’s important to think about the uncommon perspective, and get out of the habit of shooting from the same height all the time. To that end, this photography project – The View From Below – calls on you to take and submit a great photo from no higher than 30cm (12in) above the ground.

Getting low with nature lets you set the small within the context of the big.
Looking straight up from the ground can create a unique perspective and add a strong mood to a photo.
Project rules
- Use any camera that you like
- Take photographs from no more than 30cm above the ground
- You may not submit studio photos
- A tabletop or other raised surface will not be considered the “ground”
- The photo must have the ground visible in the shot, or it must be obvious that it was taken from a low perspective
- The photo must be taken within the period of the project
- I will be accepting ONE and only one entry per person, so pick your best shot
- Upload the photo to your preferred photo sharing service or blog
- All submissions must be on publicly accessible pages – no myspace or facebook accounts please
- Submit your entry by filling out the form below
- You agree to the Terms of Entry
Whether a photograph is appropriate is finally up to my discression. If I reject an entry, I’ll give a full explanation why. You may take another photo and submit that in its place. It pays to submit your entry early!
Some suggestions
- Look up a street or sidewalk (Do not put your safety at risk!)
- Get up close and personal with your pet
- Crawl around on the floor with an infant relative
- Use macro equipment to explore the ground in your back yard
Judging.
Once the due date has passed, I’ll collate the entries and make a voting page where the photos can be seen by everyone. Readers will choose their favourite entry and place a vote for it. Voting will close on FEBRUARY 28th (midnight AEST) and the results will be posted to the blog the next day.
Submissions for this project have closed. Voting on the submissions will commence soon.
Terms: Any photo that you submit remains your sole property. I (Neil Creek) make no claims of ownership or copyright. By submitting a link to your photo, you grant me the right to include a copy of the photo, or a thumbnail of the photo in future posts on the blog (Neil Creek – Photographer) for the purposes of conducting the project, or to be used as an illustrative example in other future blog posts, or for the promotion of this project elsewhere on the blog or on other sites not controlled by me. In all cases all photos displayed for any purpose will be properly attributed and links will be provided to the creator where possible. You also agree to allow me to place advertising on pages on this blog where your photo appears for the purposes of promoting a prize sponsor, or general advertising on the site, without any compensation. By clicking submit on the form above, you aknowledge that you have read, understand and agree to these terms.
Antoine Khater
Neat idea Neil ! I’ll do my best to make it for this one
Luis Cruz
The photo must be taken within the period of the project
Does this mean that submitting this image I took in December last year is out of the question? I had to get on my stomach for that shot.
Neil Creek
I’m afraid so! There’s a couple of reasons why I ask people to submit photos only taken during the project period:
– I want people to take the photo with the project in mind. The point is to get people to try new things and think about photography in a new way.
– Some people may have a huge collection of relevent photos going back years. It’s unfair for them to be alble to pick their very best photo from all that time to submit when others may only have the three weeks of the project to get their shot.
I hope you understand :)
Luis Cruz
No worries… I’m trying to come up with some interesting images now.
I hope I come up with something I’m happy with, and I hope a lot of people participate. Good luck!
My Camera World
Hi Neil
You have a good collection of photos.
I wanted to reply sooner but I got busy doing other things and then the memory slips.
I like this approach with low angle shoots.
Just before after Christmas as I got a gorilla zoom for my camera, which I attached to my monopod at the 1 foot level.
I walked around downtown and using my wireless trigger took pictures on the streets.
I am glad that it was winter here as I felt a little voyeuristic about this and was glad that the all had long pants and coats on.
There were not many good images, ok technically, but I should have gone with a wider lens (10-14) as the 18mm (1.5 crop factor) did not do it. Also the image that did work had lots of legs in them.
Niels Henriksen
Shyam
Look forward to your future projects Neil