okay this is a weird one to ask about because i dont even fully know how to describe the problem. technically my shots are fine, exposure is good, theyre sharp, but when i look at them compared to stuff i see posted here or on instagram they just feel... flat? boring? like theres nothing interesting happening even when im shooting interesting places

flew over this amazing coastal area last weekend, cliffs, turquoise water, the whole thing, and my photos still look kind of meh. a friend said maybe its a composition thing and i think shes right but i dont really have a photography background so i dont know where to start. do the usual rules like rule of thirds even apply when youre looking straight down or at a low angle from the air? feels like different territory

rule of thirds absolutely still applies, probably even more so from the air honestly because you have so much more control over your framing than a ground photographer does. you can literally hover and reposition until something lines up. the thing i notice with newer aerial photographers is they tend to just hover at whatever height feels comfortable and shoot straight down or straight forward ? but try tilting your gimbal to like 45 degrees and finding a leading line, a road, a river, a fence, something that pulls the eye through the frame. cliffs and coastline are perfect for this actually

also dont underestimate altitude changes. flying lower than you think you should can make a huge difference, it adds depth and makes the viewer feel like theyre in the scene rather than just looking at a map

what helped me was just studying shots i liked and trying to reverse engineer why they worked. like actually sitting down and thinking about where the horizon is placed, whats in the foreground, is there a focal point. sounds tedious but after doing it a few times it starts to become automatic when youre flying. also sometimes the boring feeling comes from shooting in flat light rather than composition ? a dramatic sky or long shadows does a lot of the heavy lifting for you