Every list of bird photography tips invariably tells us to “shoot at the bird’s eye level”. A tip that’s often ignored, though not by prize-winning photographers. Of recent top 100 winners in the Audubon photo contest, 70% were clearly eye-level; most of the rest very close to it. But all rules have exceptions.

The eyes of the kayakers above are right on the horizon line, same as the photographer’s eye (me), a weak placement and a distraction.

I frequently shoot sea kayaking, where horizons loom. Early on, I learned the wrong way to photograph kayakers was to photograph from my seated eye level. As Victor Perard reveals (Beginners Guide to Perspective), your eye level is the horizon line. Repeat: your eye level, your perspective, is the horizon line. If you’re in a kayak, that line, in effect, passes from your eye, through the other kayaker’s eyes and on to the horizon line (or vanishing point). Similarly, in the illustration, the seated artist’s eye passes through the torso of the walking man, regardless of his (shrinking) size as he moves toward a vanishing point.

A better way to photograph fellow kayakers is to take your eye off the viewfinder. Raise the camera overhead, or drop it just above the surface of the water. Your subject’s head then moves away from that distracting horizon to create a more engaging image.

And birds? With small, close-in birds, the horizon line is not a factor. Often with telephoto lenses, even when working around sea, lakeshore, farm field or open terrain, the horizon line disappears into a sought-after bokeh. But then suddenly there it is, discovered later, at home, and you’re kicking yourself because that line passes like an arrow through the eye of your eagle, or heron, or curlewꟷa disheartening distraction from the story you’re trying to tell. If only you had dropped a bit lower (or higher).

As well, there are images that benefit when perspective moves off eye-level, regardless of piercing arrows. Looking up a bit at a Bald Eagle can enhance its look, make it feel more powerful, more regal. A frog’s eye view of a hunting heron can be imposing. A shorebird or mouse-eye view of a falcon on a beach can best convey the threat posed by these proficient predators. Looking down on cliffside seabirds, with distant water behind, generally works. A raptor up on a perch, eyes looking down as in hunting mode, can capture our attention as well.

Sitting in a ditch next to a farm field, my perspective was compromised by a barbed wire fence, resulting in the above left image with a tree line (horizon line) distractingly close to the curlew’s head. I addressed this in photoshop by pulling down the tree line (right image). Note: Digital composites like this should always be disclosed; they are banned for photo contests, documentaries and even some commercial work.

“Now… bring me that horizon . . . And really bad eggs” Jack Sparrow

Questions? Leave a comment below.

Gary