September 24, 2020, AM, continuing my wandering around in the Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado:
For landscape images it is best to make simple images with no distracting clutter. In a forest it is virtually impossible to avoid clutter. Trees and grasses grow in a mass of seeming disorder. Limbs and twigs stick out everywhere, the forest floor is covered with all kinds of natural debris, grasses and low growing plants, fallen trees and limbs. Still, I try to carefully consider what is in my composition. Sometimes I can exclude something that I consider particularly distracting, many times I just have to accept what is there and try to compose so that a viewer can get the intended message.
Sometimes, isolating details, either via zooming in or cropping in post processing, works to eliminate clutter, but context may be lacking, if that matters.
The chaotic nature of a forest may be the message.
Sometimes there appears to be a natural geometry within the chaos or just a simple highlight that catches the eye.
I do not claim to be an expert or accomplished photographer, so maybe I need to move on now.
Until next time stay well and safe,
Ken
Nice light and backlight! I agree that shooting in a forest can be challenging. Being the neat freak I am I want to clean it up! It is hard to find an aspen forest that isn’t full of dead trees on the ground. You did a good job of composing to make them an interesting subject.
Thanks, Denise. I admit that I sometimes move things around to tidy up a scene!