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| Composition is always the key to unlocking the power of the landscape. Canon 1Ds MKll, Canon 300 2.8L IS |
seeing the forest for the trees
Blinded by the light? I think this happens to all of us at times. I'm always looking for light, color and texture to help me tell my story of the landscape and how I feel about the scene I'm witnessing. These are the major elements for me and I need some, or all, to help make an even stronger composition. Shape and form will be there even if I don't have the others mentioned but as I'm shooting I try and be mindful that I need all of them. If I don't have all of them then I must compensate for that fact. On the other side of this thought process, there can also be too much of a good thing as well!
While with our Great Smoky mountains fall color workshop in October we entered Cades Cove on a warm but stormy dawn. The weather was moving very quickly and the light was fleeting at best. Over the course of the next four hours we were privileged to have a very diversified photo shoot. Some of it was found to be very easy and straight forward but at other times we were challenged.
The outlook for fall color in this area (southeastern U.S.) was not very promising. Extremely warm temperatures continued across the region through September and then cooled suddenly only to warm once again just before our arrival. While I never plan a workshop around only one element, in this case color, I have to admit that an off year would have been a disappointment. From what my research indicated just before our arrival, an off year might be optimistic. There was a good chance, and fear, that the leaves might just drop from the trees without turning color!
It didn't happen ... happily!
However the elimination of the first problem seemed to bring on a new, but just as important one. Now with great color I became worried about being overwhelmed and not seeing the forest for the trees!
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| Side light "spotlights" a lone tree to bring this composition together. Canon 1Ds MKll, Canon 24-70 2.8L Singh-Ray color intensifier and 2 stop graduated ND filters |
As we entered Cades Cove the storm clouds moved as the light danced across the vast expanse before us. We moved throughout the area as rain fell intermittently. More than once a potential opportunity disappeared before we could set up but just as importantly, many appeared while we were already there, sometimes waiting on something completely different or in a different direction than anticipated. At times we were the parade and at other times the parade came to us!
In a small section of the cove we were presented with both muted light, strong directional light and beautiful color, but not all at once. I decided to try and tell this story. Both compositions above were done within a few hundred yards of each other, in different directions and light.
The top composition along with the one above are actually the same story, but told in reverse.
In the top image, using the muted light, I set the color as the focal point and used a telephoto lens for detail. Direct light would have taken away from the subtle scene I wanted to capture. The color makes the effect of going from a light foreground to a dark background. In the image directly above I've done the same only this time using the sidelight and the dark clouds while making the color in the background a minor yet important detail. Again, it's the same composition in my mind but a reverse application to achieve it. The second image took more time however and there was more involved.
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| Back light in the distance dictated the first composition |
Narrowing the composition and then waiting for light |
As the storm drifted by in the distance, the cove before me became dark. The tree had lost most of it's leaves and color but I saw it as a strong focal point, isolated as it was. One of the first questions I ask myself when setting up a composition is -what brought me here?- In this case it was the tree. Of the two smaller images above, the one on the left, I broke a few compositional rules by deciding to center the tree. My thought was that I wanted to make this tree seem vulnerable to this oncoming storm. Alone and unprotected. However I realized that without light on the tree, my focal point became the approaching storm and it just didn't seem ominous enough to make my point.
Again on the left, the tree was helped considerably by the use of a four stop graduated neutral density filter. It held back the direct light and offered a much better exposure of the shadow area.
Redefining my focal point I quickly changed to a longer lens and this time I was careful not to center the tree in the cove, but still using the flash of color between the main trunk and limb, I set the tree trunk a little to the right and thought the clouds moving to the left would create movement in the other direction thus making a circular effect. Without any filtration the image is flat and lifeless. The exposure was made reading the sky.
Foreseeing the possibility that the light in the distance might soon bathe the tree as well, I added the Singh-Ray color intensifier and waited. As the light hit the tree the need to darken the sky behind became apparent and was accomplished with the use of a Singh-Ray 4-HS ND moved through the composition during exposure.
Two seemingly different compositions made within minutes of each other in the same way while seeing ...the forest for the trees.
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