apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Most how-to pointers cover the basics — light, wide shots, vignettes — but we rarely hear anyone mention how important it is to show what the room looks like from your perspective as the user of the space. For example, the photo above was taken by kneeling in the center of the floor and, while it successfully depicts the lovely relationship between our rocking chair and tripod lamp, we never experience this vantage point as users of the living room...

This photo depicts what we see from the couch when we look at that same corner — an intriguing composition as seen through the lamp. The rocking chair is actually so low in stance that we rarely see it from the couch (ironically, this is why we attempted the re-arrange in the first place). Even though the pretty white rocker is out of sight, this vantage has a beauty all its own and is no less "true" as a representation of our space.

We're thinking about photographing other rooms in the house this way — maybe the dining room as seen from our seats at the table and the bedroom as seen from in the bed. We understand and respect the reality of photographing interior spaces with wide-angle shots but we hope to see more of these unique user vantage points as people continue documenting their spaces.