We get such good feedback from our Same Place — Different View posts, that I thought we’d have a series from Belize. We’ve already done a photo travelogue of most of our days in Belize, but this time, we’ll compare and contrast Arnie’s and my views.

In the first example, we were headed up into the foothills of the Mayan Mountains to explore a waterfall area. On the way, we both told Antonio, our guide, to stop. School had been let out for lunch, and there were children everywhere. We love the Mayan children. They are at once shy, giggling, bold, and clamoring, but the girls tended to be shyer.

Arnie captured this girl’s shyness as she peeked out from the safety of a tree. Putting her slightly out of focus added to her mystery, but did not diminish her slightly-tentative smile.

Emboldened by the support of her friend, I saw a different side to her. Here, with her regal bearing, I could well imagine her as the matriarch of her village some years down the road.

It is good to remember when photographing people that men and women often bring out different looks in the subject as shown above. Also, where you photograph your subject makes a difference in the personality you bring out in that subject.

We had a lot of fun at the falls. We both love water and being around it.

Arnie worked with capturing each droplet of water as it cascaded below us. He also caught the wonderful patterns and rhythm of the water.

I chose to work with a soft look, again looking for patterns. I ended up calling this one Liquid Silver, as it reminded me of molten silver being poured into a mold.

You can see that we were standing fairly close to the same spot, but different lenses and our own approaches produced totally different effects.

In the next example, we visited a woman who had learned from her grandmother how to make pottery in the traditional Mayan manner. Her grandmother died soon after, but not before she had passed on a generations-old legacy.

With his documentary background, Arnie liked the scene in the potter’s house and the interaction with her son who brought water to keep the clay moist as she molded and prodded it into shape.

I love details, and I was drawn to the way her hands worked delicately, yet firmly, to shape the pot.

The youngest daughter of our potter was very shy at first. While her older siblings warmed up to us right away, she kept a wary eye on us. Bit by bit, she relaxed, and pretty soon, she kept coming up to us to see what we were doing and what images she could see on the backs of our cameras.

She was such a curious little pixie, checking on her mother in one moment, and in the next, going to the door to watch the kids on the playground, as Arnie captured her here.

I found her in a quiet moment and photographed her against the jamb of that same door as she smiled at me while fiddling with her sandal.

We were in the same place, but Arnie and I interpreted each of these scenes with our own views. So, whether you are photographing people or a scene, don’t just accept the first view or approach you find. Work the scene.

We’ll continue in the next blog. Meanwhile…

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