A few years back when I was shooting this story I found myself with a dilema - amputate part of the scene or shoot vertical. Many of my photographer friends talk about verticals the way someone might sheepishly mention driving drunk into a ditch or spilling hot coffee in their lap. Some say they only take one vertical a year. I've heard others say that it just feels weird.
Typically online slide shows are geared towards horizontal frames, a vertical in the mix looks odd. It throws off the continuity. Also, you can always crop a horizontal to vertical if you absolutely need a vertical for a page layout so why not keep as much information in the frame as possible.
So my problem with the Penang shot above and below is that I just could not make a horizontal happen. Above, I was shooting a 35mm pushed against a wall. In order to clear the top of the minuret I was laying on the ground with my face pressed against the sidewalk. At sidewalk level there was a nice line of light leading to the mosque. In a perfect world I would have a person walking through the light with the line of the mosque leading the eye to the minuret (when I took the above shot a cloud had just passed in front of the sun). I could get the line and the minuret but not the light. So when the guy below walked into the frame I said mea culpa and shot a vertical.
I didn't bother submitting this vertical frame but did end up using the shot later for a print publication. It's a scene I'll need to revisit either with a wider lens or with the idea of finding anther vantage point if I want to get it all in a horizontal.
