Tag: Photographic Composition

On the morning of my fourth day in the Bisti Wilderness my son and I hiked to an area he nicknamed “Scalloped Rocks” for sunrise photos.  This area within Bisti has much of interest.  There are rocks in many shapes, hoodoos, hills and shallow drainage patterns in the mostly barren ground.

With such a variety of possible compositions it is difficult to know where to even start.  I captured the scene above before sunrise.

When the sun peeks over the horizon the scenery gets really interesting.  The rocks and hillsides come alive with color and shadows.

Early morning shadows not only add interest, they make getting balanced compositions difficult and one has to be aware of where one’s own shadow falls.

The image above is cropped from a much larger original.  One of the things that I noted about my compositions in this area is that I frequently did not get close enough with my wide angle lens to a desirable object in the composition.  I tried to include too much in my images and the results were not the best.

While one can crop an image in an effort to zoom in on a portion within the image, one cannot change the point of view via cropping nor include or exclude items in the most desirable way.

The B&W image above is cropped from the previous image, which in turn was cropped from another.  In neither case, could I really get an image the way I wanted it to be.

The image above is the one from which the previous two crops were taken.  In this image I used the shallow drainage patterns as leading lines into the image.  It seemed like a good idea at the time and it sort of worked, but when I inspect the details within the image, I now see that I might have gotten much better compositions by moving (zooming with my feet) around within the area.

This might be another image in which I included too much.  My concept for this image is using the line of rocks on the left with their shadows and the rocks on the right along with the drainage pattern in the middle to lead the eye into the image.  The end result just does not look completely satisfying to me.  I’m not sure I could have done this any better, but I could have gotten other compositions.  Would they have been better?  I really do not know, so maybe I will have to revisit this area someday and try again.

I like the composition above, even though it has much in it, maybe because I got close to the rock on the left and it has a long shadow leading to the group of rocks on the left and the eye tends to continue through the image.

I was excited about shooting in this area, but I did not realize how much of a challenge it would be to get really good compositions or to be in the right place at the right time for the best light.

This is perhaps one of my better compositions here, with the line of rocks on the right casting long pointy shadows diagonally across the image leading to an interesting feature in the background; but that feature in the background is much more interesting, when up close to it.

I cropped the image above from the previous one and I like the results, but I think had I zoomed around with my feet and watched my shadow, I might have gotten a more interesting shot.

I’m going to expound on my concept for the image above and let the viewer decide whether it worked or not.

This image has numerous natural leading lines (rows of rocks, drainages, hill slopes) with the major ones indicated by the blue arrows.  These lines all tend to converge near the upper center of the image.  Even though these lines lead ones eyes through the image, there is something lacking.  It would have been much better to have some conspicuous object at the convergence of the lines.  So, I think, it is partially successful, but not completely.  Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

This final image is another one that is cropped from a larger original, still there is much of interest around the base of the hill in the upper right, where I might have gotten a more interesting composition.

Getting good depth of field in these type shots is also a challenge.  Maybe I need to go to a smaller aperture for such shots and/or choose my focus points more judiciously.  Sometime focus stacking is feasible, but with the sun position changing so rapidly, the shadows will move perceptively between shots, which might create problems and I have noted that Photoshop does not always do the best job with its selection of image portions and often leaves some artifacts around the edges of objects, especially those in the distance.

Such are the frustrations of a landscape photographer.

“Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer—and often the supreme disappointment.” – Ansel Adams

Ken