Thinking Square
One of the interesting things about the new “mirror less” cameras is that they can be set for different aspect ratios in the camera and the electronic viewfinder. The Panasonic GH2, which I have been using quite a bit over the last year, can produce images in 3:4, 2:3, 16:9, and 1:1. the 1:1 square format was the same as the medium format cameras such as the classic Rolliflex and Hasselblad. I’ve read a couple of articles lately on the Web by photographers who thought that this was a good way to go out with the camera with a “new” perspective.
Of course, it’s easy to crop a square image out of a rectangular image but if you compose the shot in the viewfinder with a square view, you see differently as you compose. Back on one of those ridiculously warm days last March, I visited Harper’s Ferry and shot with the camera set for the square format. The interesting thing was that it felt perfectly natural as I composed the shots in the viewfinder.
Light, Shadow, Form, and Texture 