Friday 4 February 2011

Angle, Perspective and Story

I am discussing about photography.

Being an owner of a Nikon D90, I try, whenever possible, to capture scenes, events and stories through the lens of this sophisticated tool. Different people take up photography for many reasons. In fact photography is gaining interest in Malaysia, perhaps due to availability of high end digital cameras at fairly reasonable cost. I know a number of friends who ended up as a full time photographers. 


When my camera is not with me, my iPhone becomes handy. In fact most official events are captured through this gadget as it would be very odd for me to carry my D90 during those occasions. While the photo quality is not as good, what matter more are the angles of the photo, your perspective of the event and the storyline which you want to communicate.

In fact angle, perspective and story are not only applicable to taking photo-shots but could be applied in any situation when effective communication is essential. In the present era when people could express what they have in their minds in many ways and forms, having angles, perspectives and stories which resonate more to the target audience would help in sending the points across and hopefully convincing the audience.





This brings us to another aspect of communication, understanding the audience. I'm sure we have heard a lot of talk show over the radio when people could call in to air their views. Listening to these conversations would be interesting as we could hear a specific issues being discussed from many angles and perspectives, depending on the background, knowledge and emotional state of the callers. Listening deeply is a very effective way of understanding the audience. Sometimes,  what was not said could also be critical as well. this could be a painful exercise especially when what was said went against our own viewpoints. However, if we would really want to understand others viewpoints and thought, a little patient would help.


How do we convey our angles, perspectives and stories? 


We do this in many ways on a daily basis. When we talk with friends over teh tarik or when we are engaged in heavy discussions during official meetings, we do attempt to influence others through our own angles, perspectives through our stories on the subject being discussed. In societies with high power distance, the views from people with higher standing could be considered differently compared to the rest. This is why we need to have a fairly good idea of how people around the table are thinking. It could prudent to choose when to engage heavily and when to let go. We could not expect all our viewpoints would be received well all the time.





The availability of social network platforms enables us to express ourselves to a wider audience in ways we feel appropriate. In doing so we need to remember one point, everything we write would be recorded permanently. It helps to articulate our our viewpoints using angles, perspectives and stories that we reflect fairly on our personalities.


Remember your angles, perspectives and stories well reflect you as a person and how you would be perceived, rightly or wrongly. 


I would like to acknowledge the presence of my friend Rahim Hamid on blogsphere through his blog As I Was Passing.

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