Olio di Oliva e Sogni di Vino: Favorite Photos: In a Different Perspective

Olio di Oliva e Sogni di Vino

Passion for Italy, Language and Wine

Favorite Photos: In a Different Perspective

Favorite Photos are back with Cecil from Travel Feeder. Enjoy his different points of view of these locations. Can you guess where these photos were taken?

Welcome Cecil!

These are 3 of my favorite travel photos taken from different points of view. Sometimes I just don't feel like shooting what everybody is shooting toward a popular destination. While 'standard perspective view' photos are important when introducing a destination, these angles could also ruin the attractiveness of a landmark by being too dull and common, which are seen everyday in a newspaper, a magazine or in a friend's photo album.

In order to make a popular destination stand out from the rest, I captured the following hot tourist spots from different angles.Let me know if you can tell where these places are...

1) Gazing up to the Triumphal Arch from below. From this angle,I realized the Triumphal Arch is actually a monument rather than a giant arch. This 50m high monument was built in 1830s, to honor those who fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars. Those names are inscribed on the inside walls. They were French generals involved in these wars. Taking the shot from below unveils a unique perspective of this Parisian icon.

2) The enormous entryway to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (better known as Duomo),Florence. This famous tourist spot attracts millions of visitors each year because of its' white, green and pink colored marble facade. Taking over 140 years to complete, there are many more features to explore.One of them is the fantastic stone carving art which appears on the main beam of the entryway. Looking up close, you will discover the greatness of sculpture from ancient times. Taking the shot with an ultra wide angle lens makes a well-rounded view of the entryway.

3)What about this? Have you figured out where this photo was taken? No? There are 248 of these 10m high columns lining up to form the border of an oval. Seldom do people walk in here to take photos. Most of the travelers shoot its view from where 140 life-size saints crown the cornice of the roof on top of these stone columns. Now do you know where this is? Yes. It's better known as the St. Peter's Square.

All the above photos were taken on my travel to Western Europe recently. The strongest element of these photos is line, the combination of straight and curve lines from different degrees. Try shooting popular landmarks from a different angle of view and the results could be unexpectedly remarkable.

Cecil Lee is an avid traveler who is also a passionate travel blogger and travel photographer living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He writes about travel for MNUI travel insurance and on his own travel photo blog, Travel Feeder.