What are you looking at?

“I took this pic at the Muzandzeni picnic site near Satara. The lizard scurried around on one of the wooden benches. I startled him as I approached and he disappeared into one of the slits. I squatted down and waited. A few seconds later, his head emerged. I like the different elements in the photo: the rough wood, the lizard’s smooth skin and then the finer detail.”

Just like the photo of the chameleon, this one’s focal point is also the animal’s face in the centre of the frame. Your eye goes to his, but what makes this photo so much more special is that it looks as though the lizard is peering at you.

The details in the photo is interesting, and the important ones are sharp and in focus. The photo also relies heavily on negative space, but the stump on the right almost feels as though it’s in the way. You don’t lose much by cropping some of the negative space; in fact, again it places greater emphasis on the focal point. Now you have a square photo, it’s a more passive format than the traditional rectangular format, especially in terms of composition. But if you can get away with a square photo, why notdoit?