Title • park regis pool #2

Whenever I run a photography workshop, or post-production workshop with a shooting component, there are a whole range of things I run through before we head out into the field: using the histogram to monitor exposure, depth-of-field, choice of lens/focal length, composition – all the usual topics you'd expect. There is one more thing I always say though: at the point at which you think you've nailed the shot, start over and shoot it again. The reason I say this is that it's all too easy to think you've got the shot, or at least got something that you're happy with, and move onto the next interesting thing to shoot. Often though, there's either an equally good shot or, more likely, a better one of the same scene: you just have to pause long enough to find it.

Take this shot as an example. It's another view of this scene: the shot of the Dubai skyline shot from the pool bar at the Park Regis hotel. When I took the previous shot I thought I'd probably got what I wanted – a different take on some of the iconic landmarks of Dubai – but by spending another 20 minutes or so thinking about how to recompose the scene I also got this one. Admittedly, it was taken from the same place using the same lens, so it's hardly a radical alternative, but a) it's a shot I would have missed unless I forced myself to think through the alternatives, and b) I much prefer this one as it gives a better sense of scale.

That said, you may well prefer the first one: let me know what you think.

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

2.40pm on 14/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/11.0 1/125 aperture priority +1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail 2x1