How do I get a nice shot of this?

[travelpat]

When I was walking down a street in Cambodia I looked into one of the shops and saw this scene. In that country it is not unusual to see a shop owner take a nap and I wanted to take a picture to show the situation to those back home.

The picture I took certainly serves that purpose but I was wondering how I could take a photo that is also interesting from an artistic point of view.

How would you go about that? Where would you position yourself, what would you include in your photo, what would you exclude?


Cambodian Computer Merchant by TravelPatrick, on Flickr

[Mista Gav]

Well for a start I would make the sleeping person a key subject of the photo, whether that's getting close to the person or a different perspective. Maybe position yourself so the stuff on the shelf there is behind the person as that would give a nice perspective.

Also if you say it is not common for shop owners to sleep like this then maybe try find some others and photograph them too and then you end up with a nice collection....but yea make the person the focus and the rest should come naturally from that.

[icewater]

i'll put my camera on the floor (pov), and maybe exclude the baby's crib from the frame

[GuruBhai]

Personally for me; I'll take the picture from a different angle;

Sit near the feet of sleeping person; Try focusing on person and the shelves behind the sleeping person; Frame your shot.

[travelpat]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, guys. I really like the idea of taking the camera low.

Something especially difficult about this situation (at least for me) is that I don't want to be too intrusive. Rushing into somebody's shop, getting on the floor and firing away is... somewhat strange. But as I said, enough sleeping people around so I'll wait for another chance to take my camera low.