Just did this for another forum but I figured I'd post it here. It's useful for beginning photographers:
The top shows photographing a rifle at an angle. This is good when you can't get far enough away to fit the whole rifle in the frame. You can fit the whole rifle in this way, however, the picture does get a bit distorted as the end closest to the camera appears bigger.
It also shows how to reduce (can't be eliminated) the flash generated "hotspot" (bright white blob in the middle of the picture). By taking the photo at an angle, a lot of the light bounces away from the camera lens. As seen on the bottom of the diagram, head on shots reflect much of the flash right back through the lens (cause of the hotspot). The best way to take object pics is in indirect sunlight.
This angle technique is also good for taking pics through a window (like at a department store display)... make sure you angle the shot.
Hope this helps,
Jack