Chopping Heads

The above photo was an accident. I intended to capture Roxy's whole body, but because I wasn't looking through the viewfinder I chopped off the top of her head. But I actually really like it. I realize now that some of my favorite photographers go around taking headless pictures all the time and I am often really drawn to those photos. But it had never occurred to me to do it on purpose until I took this one. I think there's a certain element of mysteriousness to a photo that is cropped below a person's (or animal's) eyes. What's the first thing you typically look at in a portrait? The eyes, right? I know I do. So when that element is taken away, you are forced to take notice of other details.

Most "old school" photographers would tell you to never, ever cut off someone's head in a photo. But I don't really care what they say. And think I'm going start experimenting with this a little more. I did some poking around Flickr to find some good examples. Although, let me encourage you to never search Flickr with the words "chopping heads". I am still scarred from that. However, after looking through the streams of some of my own contacts and the Shutter Sisters pool I quickly found what I was looking for.

Our own Tracey, chops heads all the time with great success! And I see lots of maternity photos taken from the neck down. It's a great way to focus on those big beautiful bellies.

Here are some more of my favorite headless portraits:

Beebee Mod 

Emily (RWP) 

strawberrygoldie 

camerashymomma 

I could go on, but I'll stop there for now because I want to hear from you. How many of you find yourself cropping heads out of photos and how often do you do it on purpose? Of course, I'd love to see examples!

Comments

[Claudia]

Headless pictures...no problem!!!
I also love this technique.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20398719@N03/2428181165/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20398719@N03/2312728721/in/set-72157604246907909/

[Andrea]

I know I'm a little late to this post, but wanted to share my favorite chopped head pic.

My son was three in this shot (http://photos1.blogger.com/photoInclude/blogger/2403/744/1600/PB190711.jpg) and this was the first time he was alone on a trampoline, and so didn't have to worry about being bounced to his butt by the bigger kids. His joy is utterly complete. For the series of pictures, here is the blog post: http://littlebalddoctors.wordpress.com/2006/06/27/toad-and-a-trampoline/

[Andrea]

Crap, it looks like the first link didn't work. The headless shot is the last one on the blog post. I kind of like it as part of the series, too. Gives more context.