With a fabulous jump-start from Tina, this week’s photo challenge is a double take, in a sense. It asks us to share one photo that can be seen in two different ways. Although we’re novice photographers, we’ve found six simple maneuvers that show the same subject but in different ways using photos from a recent trip to the coast of Maine.
Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important, capture the good times, and if things don’t work out, just take another shot.”
Richard Branson
1. Change the weather
OK. So, you can’t really change the weather, but try taking the same shot on different weather days. Although we thought we’d only have one shot at capturing photos of the Portland Head Light (seen in sunny light above) at Fort Williams Park in Maine, we found that the morning we were to fly home the whole area was socked in by a glorious Maine-y misty kinda fog.
What to do? Well, head back to the light for one last foggy look, of course

2. Change your lens
At Cape Elizabeth, I noticed a white house standing tall on the craggy beach as if it were staring out to sea. Lonely almost. So I shot it with the only telephoto lens I own (Canon 55-25) and thought it might be a good little Maine house to sketch someday.

But as I stepped back, I realized it was the whole that I was after. So, I reached for the lens I use most (Canon 18-55mm) and took it all in. Both photos have merit, but I think I like this distant one best.

3. Change your filter
A bucket on a dock in New Harbor, Maine, drew me closer. I wanted to see the chains rusted from years of use and the rope of many fibers all spun into coils languishing at the bottom. Color made the details stand out. But when I changed the photo to black and white merely by overlaying a computer filter, the ordinary became almost sinister and dark just with a touch of the screen.


4. Change your position
Shooting from a boat as it passes a harbor can be tricky, but also quite interesting. The shot of these colorful red and yellow lobster buoys in New Harbor propped up against the traps looked different as the boat put me squarely in front of the whole lot of them and then moved so I saw only a part. Same subject but from different positions and shot vertically first, then horizontally.


5. Change your Zoom!
A golden-shingled building caught my attention in downtown Kennebunkport across the water from where we parked. I loved the colors, textures, and various components.

But when I zoomed in for a second shot, I found that I liked this section best. It was propped up on wooden stilts, and its windows — almost hauntingly — invited me in for a closer look.

6. Change your attitude
Sometimes, no matter how much we plan, our subjects just don’t cooperate with us, or we allow our expectations to run too high. Take this Hardy Boat Puffin Watch Cruise, for example, out of New Harbor, Maine. Weren’t those puffins guaranteed to be there? And wouldn’t they be standing on rocks like penguins do, waiting for tourists to take the pictures they’ll show back home? Well, we looked on the rocks with no luck and then in the waters where our guide pointed. I steadied myself, and readied my telephoto. But still, this was about as good a shot of those water-loving, tiny birds as I could get. (And believe me, I took hundreds of photos.)

But fear not. Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve captured until you get home and use the cropper tool to isolate parts of the whole. The closer I got to the bird (using the cropper, of course), the more excited I became.
“Oh, my,” I said. “It really is the puffin we went to see!!!”

So take two photos of the same thing. Or manipulate your pictures so you’ll have two versions.
Or do as Richard Branson said, “. . . if things don’t work out, just take another shot.”
Many thanks to Tina for the challenge this week. You can see more entries here.
Travel dually,
Rusha & Bert
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dantesedmond21
Gradient, style, icons, colours ā sublime mate
Oh, the Places We See
Thanks so much. Youāve definitely made my day!!
Amy
Great tips and images, Rusha! I should practice these six changes. Thank you!
Oh, the Places We See
You already do. Iām so impressed with your photography.
Amy
Thank you so much for your compliment!
rkrontheroad
So many ways to look at things! I hope you had as much fun working with these variations as I had looking at them.
Oh, the Places We See
Thanks for this special comment. We have lots of ways we look at things, and I guess that’s what keeps travel and photography so much fun. Here’s to more good health so we can keep on!
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rajkkhoja
Wonderful photos post
kzmcb
Great photos and tips/lessons. Those puffins are quite extraordinary.
Oh, the Places We See
Thanks for taking a look. The puffin tour was extraordinary but only after we figured out where to look!
Anne Sandler
Excellent examples!
Oh, the Places We See
Thanks so much! It was a challenge that really made me think.
WanderingCanadians
Lovely pictures. I have such fond memories of our time in Maine. We used to visit every Spring prior to the pandemic.
Oh, the Places We See
We love Maine, and weāre especially grateful for friends who own a summer camp there. Our visits together with our kids are some of my favorite summertime memories!
Toonsarah
What a great selection of two ways photos! I am with you in preferring the wider view at Cape Elizabeth and the zoomed in one at Kennebunkport. And I think I like the colour version of that rusty chain and rope.
Oh, the Places We See
I agree. I donāt really like the black and white if the rope – it was just another look. And it reminded me of an old Grade B mystery movie!!!
Toonsarah
Oh I like it, just not as much as the colour version!
Anonymous
Great series and comparisons. LOVE that Branson quote.
Oh, the Places We See
Isnāt that quote just wonderful! Applies to more than just photography!!
justbluedutch
I noted on all the points and examples, i love the approach you did here, some are very basic but sometimes we took photography in such a complicated way…thank you for providing us a beautiful gallery.
Khürt Williams
A blog post with beautiful images and pro-tips as well. Thank you.
NOTE: In the change the lens section you wrote Canon 55-25. Did you mean Canon 55-125?
Oh, the Places We See
Yes! You are so right. Sometimes Iām not sure I can even get something straight even when Iām looking right at it!
Tina Schell
A wonderful post Rusha, you’ve shown some excellent examples of the difference we can see when looking at the same subject in a different way. I loved the expansive shot of the white house and of course your puffin!
Oh, the Places We See
Thanks so much. Your challenge made me think. Although I donāt use a photo enhancing software program, maybe I should. Itās fun to think of the possibilities.
Sue
Some great examples!
Oh, the Places We See
Thanks so much!
Sue
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Pat
Nice post. We are thinking of going to Maine in September and your posts have me all excited.
Oh, the Places We See
It was a beautiful state to visit in the spring, but previous trips in summer and fall have left me thinking that Maine is pretty anytime. Well, maybe not the dead of winter.
Ana
Great examples! Well done.
Nancy Stanley
LOVE all these photographs as well as your tips! Makes me want to go back to Maine! ā¤ļø
Oh, the Places We See
Me, too. Itās hard to see it all, and some places require a re- visit!!!
Prior...
Great tips to consider as you led us through your politics for this week.
I smiled as you shared about the puffin and how you went to see that special bird – on a walk earlier this month I caught a hawk in air and later zoomed in to see he had a small something in her talons – that was a fun find that zooming in later allowed us to see
Oh, the Places We See
I had no idea puffins weāre so small. But once I trained my eye to find them, there were soooo many. I just had a hard time photographing them.
Prior...
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philosophy through photography
Love your approach to the topic.
Great clicks!
Thank you
Oh, the Places We See
Thanks so much. I’m not a skilled photographer, but I enjoy photography as a hobby when we travel. It helps me remember and enjoy the sites. I appreciate your comments and your follow!
philosophy through photography
You are welcome my friends