Fill the frame corner to corner to make an impact with composition - brown pelican St. Petersburg Florida Fine Art Photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/250th
At any given moment, you can find a brown pelican to photograph in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. Chances are you already have numerous pelican photos in your archives. This can be said for any number of common subject matters. So how to make such a common subject stand out? One way is to use a more creative composition, like having the subject fill the frame corner to corner. Use the shape of the subject to fill the frame in the most complementary way. For the pelican, with it's long narrow head, going diagonal corner to corner allows for filling the frame with the subject. Also, going through the edges of the frame creates a very different impression than fitting everything inside (with any subject it also helps to have a good, clean, complementary background; in the above photo the dark water of Tampa Bay combined with the large aperture I chose creates a smooth, gray bokeh).
When you go out shooting next time look for a subject that you can frame corner to corner.