I have met a great many photographers over the years and I tend to put them into three categories: Those with an eye for a photograph and could be said to posses original thought, those who take inspiration from looking at the work of other photographers and those who can create something out of nothing.

As a portrait photographer I fell somewhere between the last two. I would like to think, and often tried to convince myself, that I was one of the gifted few who could profess to being in the first group. I had the odd inspirational moment and have been lucky enough to find myself in the right place at the right time and produced some beautiful images, but most of the time I am inspired by others or create a situation that produces the desired effect.

Portrait photography is a mixture of the right subject and using ones expertise to make the best of what one has. Don't get me wrong I have been known to produce some stunning portraits in my time and have the awards to prove it, however, I still find myself gazing in awe of many top portrait photographers and muttering to myself "Why didn't I think of that?"

This article is entitled "Have Imagination" because I am about to show you one photograph that I think demonstrates what can be achieved with a little thought and imagination, from a photographer who i believe belongs firmly in the third group, those who can create something from nothing and produce a great shot. I can't teach you imagination I can only show you what others have done in the hope that it might inspire your gray cells.

I came across this picture on another site and was so impressed, not only with the final image, but also with the way it was created, very simple but so effective. Todd Headington is an American amateur photographer and he was kind enough to give me permission to use this image, which he calls "Painting the corners", a phrase I suspect quite familiar to those who follow baseball but completely alien to those of us who are ignorant of such sports.

This is a very imaginative shot and was entered for a competition, under the heading of perspective. I would ask you to ponder for a while before you check out the original image, the link is at the bottom of the page. What I would like you to do, before you look at the original shot is not to think about how Todd created this but instead think about how you would do it. Let your imagination work for you. This will get the brain going and you may realise just how simple it was.

The border inside the image is meant to represent the corners of a baseball diamond (I believe this is the correct term). I was so taken with the quality of the picture when I first saw it that I did not begin to wonder how it was done. However, the more I looked at it the more I tried to work out how Todd was able to catch the ball just at the right time, and before it broke his very expensive camera, or his nose. Now for those of you clever devils who already worked it out, well done. As I say it is a very simple shot but I think you would agree, very effective.

To see the orginal and how it was done CLICK HERE

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