Forest Photography

Forests can be difficult to photograph with harsh light streaming through the trees creating harsh shadows against brilliant highlights. Chaos reigns over simplicity where branches intersect, and textures vie for attention. They are busy places where the eye can find little rest. If the eye has difficulty finding rest, your camera lens as an extension of your eye will not find it. Finding a way to simplify your forest scenes becomes the task in forest photography.

Our brains like simplicity. When we look at an image, our brains like to be able to discern easily the subject and story the photographer finds important. Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you walk through a park woodland to help you find and compose an image filled with story without the clutter.

Who is your story about? In forest photography, it isn’t simply about finding a nice composition, it’s about finding the main character of your image. It could be a gnarly tree, or a fern resting in the roots of a cedar, or flowers along the path, or even how the sun lights the moss clinging to a branch. Find the character you want to feature in your image then look for compositional elements to highlight the character.

How’s the light? Look around you. Is the sun shining brightly casting dark shadows through the forest? Is it an overcast day where shadows and highlights are softer? Is it a dull day with barely any light seeping through the foliage? Each of these lighting situations bring with it their own challenges and rewards. Harsh shadows give your images a graphic quality that you can further accentuate by converting your image into black and white. Turn your back to the sun to find a composition that is completely lit from the front yet the background falls into shadow. These images are great to emphasize shapes and textures of branches and leaves. Even better, look for plants that are backlit and the background falls into shadow as they make beautiful and dramatic images. Bright overcast days make photographing forests easier as everything in the woodland density is more evenly lit. You still have shadows and highlights but not as dramatic. This lighting lends itself well to images of the personality of the forest; wider landscapes filled with trees and the ferns and bushes that fill the understory. The darkest days lend themselves well to small little vignettes of the shapes and textures of life. Find the little bright areas of leaves and flowers to focus on. Don’t stay home in the rain either. Throw on your macro lens or extension tubes to capture rain drops on leaves. Or capture the ethereal nature of rain in the forest as the air around you seems to moisten and soften. If you are lucky enough to have a foggy day in the forest, you will find other worldly images and subjects happily separated from the busy-ness of the background.

Will a different lens help? Different focal lengths of your lenses will give you flexibility in your compositions. As discussed earlier, landscape photographers rely on the holy trinity of zoom lenses – the ultra-wide angle, the mid-range, and the tele-photo. With these lenses you can capture all the moods of the forest. With the ultra-wide angle, you can capture environmental details and play with the curvature of the lens distortion. Try getting in close to a flower and have the forest in the background. With your mid-range lens you can capture all the scenes and details close to the trail. Your tele-photo zoom can isolate features and details farther away. Change out your lens to see if that helps you create the image you want.

What happens to the image if you open or close the aperture? The aperture, while regulating how much light reaches the sensor, will also determine how sharp the elements in front or behind your subject are. The aperture determines how thick your plane of focus us. The wider the aperture, the narrower your plane of focus and more elements behind and in front of the subject will be out of focus. The narrower the aperture, the thicker your plane of focus and more elements around your subject will be in focus. Try making several images each with a different aperture to see how that changes the mood of your image.

Is the shutter speed helping you capture or stop motion? In forest photography you might think that you’d want to show trees as steadfast and solid. Trees don’t move – they stay in one place from sapling to collapse. And that may just be the story you want to tell. But is it the only story? Watch trees and you will see them sway in the breeze, bobbing their heads to an unheard beat. So, play with the dichotomy of solid trees that shiver with the slightest caress of a breeze by slowing down your shutter speed and let tittering trees become the focus. Another fun exercise with slower shutter speeds is to use intentional camera movement to create abstract images of the forest.

Did you remember to bring your tripod and polarizing filter? Two indispensable accessories not to leave behind are your tripod and polarizing filter. I darker forests, when your shutter speed is slow, you will want your tripod to reduce camera shake. Avoid the disappointment of having spent the day in the forest photographing verdant beauty to get home to see unintentionally blurry photos. Use a tripod. The other accessory, the polarizing filter, comes in very handy in the forest to help reduce the glare of reflected light off leaves. Using a polarizer can help bring richer, more saturated color to your image by reducing the reflective glare.

Did you perform border patrol? Your final act before releasing the shutter is to perform border patrol. This is one of those tasks to undertake in all landscape photography. Border patrol is to check the edges of your image to make sure there are no distracting elements coming into the frame. This was once far more important in film photography since you can easily clone out distractions in your editing software. But it is a good habit to get into. Sometimes a gentle shift of camera position can take out the distraction without disturbing your composition eliminating the need to fix it in post. Also, fixing those distraction in forest photography can be cumbersome with different branches and leaves that may not clone out as well.

With practice, forest photography turns into joy and meditation. Spend time exploring the forest.

Thinking in Black and White

Way back in the mists of yesteryear as a young student in the world of photography, when we used film and processed our images in a wet darkroom, my first year was spent looking at the world devoid of color. My lessons revolved around black and white film, black and white paper, and black and white processes. The concept behind this learning process to look at the world through a colorless lens taught me to see a scene reduced to its base elements of light and shadow, shape and form, texture and emotion. The ever-present Zone System created by the king of Black & White photography Ansel Adams taught an awareness of light on the land and its effects on film and print. The monochromatic world became so ingrained in my psyche that when I excitedly processed my first color images, they appeared garish and unnatural. And the lessons I learned during those initial courses were forgotten for a short time as I explored a new color-filled world. I lost my black and white base as I transitioned into color – thinking the two ways of recording light had very little to do with each other.

I was wrong. Oh, how I was wrong.

The lessons I learned in those first classes had everything to do with color photography. Was there any wonder why my first images in color lacked the compositional qualities and emotion that I had been trained to search out? There shouldn’t have been. I was like a beginning crafter left unsupervised in Hobby Lobby. I ran through film creating colorful junk. The colors were pretty, but there was nothing I wanted to show others and far too many boring sunsets. It took me a while before I included first year lessons with second year projects. I had to go back to thinking in black and white to create images that would help me pass my classes.

They are lessons I will not forget and find useful from time to time when photographing for black and white and looking at scenes to photograph in color.

SIMPLIFIES THE SCENE

Strip the color from your image and you are left with only tones of grey. There are no distracting colors that direct your viewer’s eye from the subject. You end up relying primarily on the shape, texture and contrast to captivate your viewer. You strip your image down to its barest elements. Composition skills are brought to bear in black and white photography – you need to create compelling compositions in your images to help bring them to life or they become a mass of grey no matter how much contrast you add.

SHAPES YOUR SUBJECT

Photography is about recording light onto media – film, paper, or digital sensor. When you remove the color, all you really have left is light and shadow to shape the subject in your compositions. Our brains understand how light falls into shadow on curved objects and blocked objects and can discern between balls and bricks just by how light falls across them. You can use light and shadow to emphasize the shape and the shape then becomes as important to the subject as the subject itself. Also, you can simplify the scene to highlight only the shapes within the image.

ADDS DRAMA

Finally, you can highlight the mood, emotion, or texture of your subject. With no other distractions, your viewer can gain a greater sense of the ideas behind the image. Think of some of the most powerful portraits from the past. I always think if the images captured by Dorothea Lange during the depression. She was able to capture raw emotion in the simplest of images. “Migrant Mother” just is not the same image if I imagine it in color. Try it. Think of an image then imagine it in color. Does it feel the same? When you strip an image of color, you simplify the image to its basic shapes and its basic emotions.

TIMELESSNESS

There is also a timeless quality to black and white images. A quality that stretches back to the earliest days of photography and far into the future. Fads happen in color photography. We may not notice it much, but take a look at an image from the 70’s or 80’s. Not only do we know what decade it comes from because of the color palette of the day (avocado green and harvest gold anyone?) but there is a tonality to the image – a faded low contrast haze. But look at a black and white image from the 70’s and you may not recognize that it is from the 70’s – unless dad’s horn-rimmed glasses give it away. Because of this timeless quality, many photographers find that black and white photography lends itself well to fine art prints.

However, not every image translates well to B&W. Look for scenes that have a subject that conversion to black and white will help emphasize the subject. These are often subject that have a different color palette, texture, or lighting. Where the subject won’t get lost in grey. We are lucky in the digital age that we can convert an image to black and white to test it out and if we don’t like it – we can delete those layers. Converting to black and white will not save an image that is not exposed correctly or composed well. In fact, those flaws can be highlighted in black and white imagery

How to create your black and white image:

In camera: A lucky few of us have the ability to record only the reflected intensity with our digital cameras. Some cameras will record both a color version and a monochrome version. This helps when you are having difficulty determining if an image would look good in black and white. I personally like to make my conversions in Photoshop (or Lightroom).

In Computer: You can convert your images to black and white with any photo editing software. In the Adobe world (Photoshop and Lightroom) several companies also have plug-ins that will convert the image for you in different monochrome styles. Simple on-line tutorials will show you how to convert and adjust your image for any software you use.

Ideas for black and white images:

While not every image translates well to black and white, you can photograph everything in black and white.  Keep your eyes open for strong contrasts that highlight shapes. Making everyday objects into abstract images of light and shadow is a fun way to experiment and practice your techniques. Try long exposures or Intentional Camera Movement (where you purposefully move the camera during the exposure) for interesting abstract images. Photograph subjects with a lot of texture and highlight that texture with strong contrast. Find scenes that you want to simplify or highlight a particular subject.

Storytelling and Composition

Pull up a photographer’s YouTube video on composition or read one of a myriad of composition articles and you will be told that a good photograph tells a story. They each give you advice on how to compose your image to tell that story. What is the story you’re trying to tell? Tell the story. Tell your story. Tell a story.

They are not wrong.

But I want to flip this narrative a bit. How about we look at this from another direction. Not from looking at story through photography but looking at photographic composition through story design.

We’re going to be talking theory here to help you frame this concept better. If you want to understand mechanics better, I’ve written a 3-part series on some of the more helpful “rules.” (part 1, part 2, part 3) You might even want to check out part 4 about listening to the scene and telling its story.

You might also want to grab a cup of coffee.

For a brief review, what is composition? It is the structure within your photograph that helps tell a story. It is the order we align the elements in our image to help the viewer comfortably work their way through the image. In writing, we put our stories into structures to create a picture. Our story structures can be immense such as a novel, condensed as in short stories, or concise as in flash fiction.

Let’s look at these more closely and how these structures relate to photography.

The Novel and The Grand Landscape

A novel is a story that is long and complex. Often with several characters and subplots within the main structure of the story. Within the pages of the novel, the characters are developed and have story arcs, we get to know them as friends - celebrate when their lives are going well and cry when they die. The plot and subplots move the reader forward through to the end – we read into the dark hours of morning unable to put the book away, needing to know what happens on the next page. A well-written novel will have layers of meaning that ensnare the reader who days later will be examining the world through the view of the author no matter how distorted or perfect that view is. We yearn for the characters to come to life so we can spend more time with them.

How does this relate to a photograph? Think of your grand landscapes – those landscapes where you are standing at a vista and looking at the world as it unfolds before you. You’re at the edge of a canyon, layers of earth worn away by the river shimmering in the depths of shadow. Or maybe your view is from a cliff overlooking the ocean, waves upon waves undulating to the horizon. Or you come through a thick forest to a precipice and you see before you repeating layers of mountain ridges and peaks leading off to a massive volcano in the distance. What initially draws your eye becomes the main character which then becomes the focal point of your image. The other elements of the image become subplots and minor characters to move the reader through the main plot. Each a layer that enraptures your viewer leads them through the image to become as enthralled with the view as you were. They find it difficult to tear themselves away.

In the photo above, I stood on the side of the road through an area of Eastern Washington on hills high above the Snake River. I could see the hills on the other side of the north end of Hell’s Canyon. This is farming country. This is lonely country. Every time I drive this stretch of road, this barn whispers to me. On this early summer day, it yelled with joy. The barn is clearly the subject of the image – the protagonist of the story. The sky, the sun beams, the hills, the wheat field, the lines of trees in the distance, the hues of light and dark in the clouds, the splashes of sunlight on the hillside. All of these are added elements to help tell the grand tale of this lonely barn on this stormy day. Cropping out these elements and only featuring the barn wouldn’t help tell the story that needed to be told.

The Short Story and The Intimate Landscape

A short story is a fully developed story similar to a novel but much shorter, as the name implies. You will likely only find one primary character and few other characters. The characters, since they don’t have the benefit of many pages for development, become well-known acquaintances – someone you’d meet for coffee a couple of times a year to catch up. Generally, you will read only one plot as the limit on exposition restricts what the author will be able to explore. They are examining the main character in a short timeframe in a limited setting. The subplots, if there are any, cannot distract from the main plot of the story and confuse the reader. In a short story we examine a character and setting that is far more intimate than the novel. At the end of a well-written short story, the reader will feel as satisfied with the outcome as they will feel after a well-cooked meal. We might like to continue reading, but again while the characters and their stories are known to us, they’re not great friends who we end up missing when they are gone.

As we look at the intimate landscape, we can easily see the similarities. We are examining the world through a more intimate view. Like the short story will have a character that we come to know with a developed plot or storyline. We might see an expansive oak in the forest and create our composition with the oak as the main character. All other trees in the forest would be the storyline, the other characters helping to tell the story of the oak. Or does that oak preside over a lonely landscape where the negative space of sky and meadow help tell of its isolation? We won’t be seeing the expanse of the grand view, but the details of a scene that becomes more personal – almost as if we were a part of the scene itself. It is a self-contained image that tells the story of our subject, without extraneous details.

The little cabin above (can we call it a cabin and not a shack?) is a perfect example of the short story as an intimate landscape. We see our main character in a struggle against the elements as rain pummels the decaying wood. We know that this little cabin has already seen hard times with planks missing and its leaning stature. We know all we really need to know of its environment and the toll it has taken on the cabin. We know it has a history, even if the details of that history are not examined. We grow to like this little cabin. We wish it well and hope to see it again one day . . . maybe.

Flash Fiction and The Vignette of Nature

If you have never read Flash Fiction (where have you been?) then know that it is an extremely short story of less than 2000 words. Because is it so short, the author must grab you quickly to immerse you into the world they’ve created in short order. And that’s a pretty good definition – authors of flash fiction are the gourmet short order cooks of writing. They sit you down at the table, serve you a tale that is often a snippet in the life of their character then whisk away the plates. As a reader you are often left with wanting more but realizing that you really don’t need more, you are sated. Just like any story there is a character or more involved in a plot line. But the amount of information we are given is all that we really need.

When we move to comparing this to landscape photography, we see it as the natural vignette – a small portion of the landscape that tells an interesting story. Maybe it’s a group of woodland wildflowers twisted together in a fight for sunlight. A grouping of seashells on a beach tells us all we need to know about those seashells at that point in time. I’m mixing metaphors here but think of it at a scene in shorthand. Just enough to tell the story without writing it out in cursive. Think details. As photographers, we find those details that tell a wonderful story of the landscape as a whole. Our viewer may want to see more but leaves sated.

When we look for story-telling details, we see images as the example here. As viewers, we understand that there is more beyond the frame of the image, but that doesn’t matter. The captivating story is within this section of old wood on the side of the building where someone added a decorative touch of rustic Americana in the form of hub caps and wheel rims to the wall. We get one glimpse of the world beyond in the reflective wheel cover on the right. You have time to appreciate the scene. You may wonder about the person who hung the hub caps yet understand that really this is all you will get and all you really need. The image and story within it are concise.

So, how do you use these ideas in composition?

When you arrive at a location, look for each type of storytelling. Look for the novel or grand landscape allowing your viewer to experience a world of characters, and plot points all culminating in one climatic ending. Find the short stories or intimate landscape to give your viewer a personal view of the area, one where they get to know one character well and follow them through to a conclusion. Then finally search out those compelling details for some flash fiction or natural vignette. Combine all three of these at a location and you will come away with a strong body of work that will sustain your story and the story of place.

Telling the Story in Composition

Composition is a wondrous thing, filled with rules, guidelines and mystery. A good composition can make the boring scene exciting. On the flip side, a bad composition can destroy a beautiful scene. Composition can draw the viewer into your story but can also send them running in the other direction. We can talk for hours, and I have, on the rules of composition. (You can check out part 1, part 2, and part 3 of composition on my blog.)  We can analyze the interactions of leading lines and the Rule of Thirds. We can measure distances of the Golden Mean. We can judge an image on the photographer’s use of foreground, middle ground, and background. We can weigh the virtues of symmetry, balance, and minimalism. These are all concepts that a photographer needs to know, understand, implement, and toss aside when needed. Yet, if you follow these rules and guidelines, you could still produce an image that is lifeless and will remain on your computer and never get elevated to your wall, where good photos are meant to be.

Let’s chat a bit about going beyond the basics of composition. When you arrive on scene with beauty surrounding you and all these composition concepts in your head, do you freeze? Do you find it difficult to find a compelling composition? Do you just start pointing our camera in whatever direction and hope something will stick? Do you understand the guidelines of composition but have difficulty recording them on your sensor? Do you ever review your images after a trip and wonder what happened to the grandeur you experienced?

If you have answered Yes to any of these questions, allow me to help. As Erin Babnik explains, as landscape photographers it’s our job to organize nature. Composition guidelines help us to organize nature in an even more eye-pleasing quality that our brains can understand and latch onto. Look at the image above – the actual scene is one of chaos as forests in the Pacific Northwest are and the viewpoint is a bit disconcerting. Yet with the leading line of the waterfall through the mossy rocks, your brain knows what it is supposed to look at and finds peace in that implicit knowledge. That’s what composition is meant to do.

As you arrive on the scene, ask yourself these questions:

What attracts me to this scene? What do you like about the scene? What made you stop your walk or the car and take a longer look? Is it how the light plays across the scene? Do you find a pattern that is appealing? Analyze why – even before taking out the camera. I will often stand on a viewpoint and soak in the landscape before me without raising the camera to my eye. I am looking for those elements of the scene that attract me – and there is no right or wrong answer. Take 10 photographers to the same location and they will create 10 different images. Your vision is your own and if you like that rock, then include that in your photo or make it the subject. It’s answering the question “what about that rock do you like?” And you photograph should answer that question because you are now telling the story of that rock.

I was reminded of this basic concept of composition in a book about writing, because creativity is creativity no matter the medium. In her book “Bird by Bird”, Anne Lamont describes a scene from Mel Brooks’ movie “The 2,000-Year-Old Man” (a movie I have yet to see, but now thinking it needs to go on my list) where a psychiatrist gives advice to his patient about letting the broccoli tell him how to eat it. Sounds weird, right? But not. The subject, the scene you want to photograph has a way of talking to you; telling you how best to photograph it at that time with those conditions. What made you stop and look at the scene in the first place is a whisper. Each photographer will hear a different whisper and will photograph to tell a different story. No not a different story, just a different version of the same story, to contribute to a greater understanding of the subject.

Not every photographer will be compelled to tell the same story and that is what makes photography such a rich and creative endeavor. British landscape photographer and YouTuber, Thomas Heaton describes this concept further in his video about photographing one of the most iconic landscapes of the Southwest United States – Mesa Arch. Photographers were lined up to photograph the arch as the sun rose which makes the underside of the arch glow. However, because of the overcast sky on that day, the scene required a different telling. Thomas and a few of his fellow photographers followed the whispers and found scenes that created beautiful images of the same landscape. They were able to add to the story that is Mesa Arch by not photographing the arch itself but the landscape around the arch.

Now this is where the going gets tough – set up your camera and start removing everything in the frame that doesn’t help tell your story. A common thread to photography is that while painters start with a blank canvas; the writer begins with a blank page - our canvas, our page comes pre-filled with extraneous bits and pieces and it is up to us edit out elements to create a compelling image – an image that narrates the story of this place. It’s tough. I know when I get to a beautiful alpine meadow and flowers paint the landscape in a rainbow of hues, I want to photograph all the pretties. I want to include EVERYTHING. And I bet you also have that same impulse. You get to the viewpoint and want to get it all in the frame of your camera, but then seem unsatisfied that you couldn’t record the grandeur of the view.

Have you ever uttered this statement? “The camera didn’t do the view justice.” That’s because you’re not being choosey about what to include and what to exclude. Going back to writing, there’s a saying in editing that you have to kill the darlings. You might have a phrase, a sentence, or even a character that you love – that makes you feel good about yourself and your abilities. But sadly, this element doesn’t work in the grand scheme of the story. It’s one of the hardest things for a writer to remove that piece. It can be that way with photography too. We love that little element off to the side, but it becomes distracting to the rest of the image. Crop it out. It helps to stop and listen to the scene, breath and watch, then start looking through the viewfinder without the tripod if you’re using one. Find the view and composition where that whisper you heard turns into a yelp of joy.

Say you’re at an overlook at the Grand Canyon. Of course, you want an image of the canyon with all the layers and textures of the earth. You frame up an image that encompasses as much as you can to show the grandeur. While you’re at it, you try to include a little promontory closer to you, but then something just doesn’t look right. At this point try one of two things. Crop the promontory out of the frame, then reposition yourself, investigate the promontory and create another image. Or ditch the first composition, move yourself and reframe an image that features both the promontory and the grandeur. That little promontory is trying to tell you something about the story of the place. Listen to it. I think you’ll be happy that you did.

We can know the rules or guidelines front to back and create technically correct images that never spark life in our audience. To take that extra step to listen to the needs of the scene and find the telling of the story of the time and place and only telling one story at a time, eliminating all of the extraneous side stories, you will be well on your way to creating an image that calls to your audience to stop and listen to the story you’re retelling.

Ideas of Composition: Part 3

Welcome back to my blog series on composition. We are now on Part 3. Part 1 explored Rule of Thirds, Symmetry and Balance, and Leading Lines. Part 2 explored Curves, Rhythm and Pattern, and Framing. So many ideas to help make your images better. But wait! There's more! In Part 3 we will explore the ideas of  Foreground, Midground and Background, Shapes, and Filling the Frame.

Again, these are ideas to build upon. The ideas in the previous blogs work well in exploring these ideas

FOREGROUND, MIDGROUND, and BACKGROUND

Photographs are two-dimensional representations of our three-dimensional world. How do we compose images that help translate that three-dimensionality onto a two-dimension medium? Through our compositions, we create the illusion that the two-dimensional image is three dimensions with the use of foreground, midground, and background. Adding these elements helps to create the appearance  of depth by giving the viewer elements through the image to focus on - just as we would have elements close to us, between us and the distance and into the horizon in the world around us. Let's look at these one by one.

Foreground brings the viewer into the image and creates interest to investigate further. This is usually a detail closer to the photographer that is interesting and will make the viewer pause to admire it's interesting lines and details. It often helps set the stage for the rest of the image. A colorful bush in the fall or a patch of flowers in the spring tell the viewer the season. A country road leading the eye further or a ramshackle fence tell the viewer we are no longer in the city. Take your time in finding an interesting foreground - your midground might change but your background will likely be far enough away to change hardly at all. A viewer can tell whether or not you took your time here - throwing in a foreground just because you want a foreground will do the exact opposite of what you want. It could look haphazard and the viewer will walk away. Foreground can be the base of the rest of your image and when done right will direct the viewer to the rest of the image.

Midground helps draw the viewer in further, and is often a resting place for the viewer's eyes. The midground should be free of distractions or elements that either block the viewer from continuing on into the image or distractions that draw them away from the image such as a fence that reaches from edge to edge where a viewer feels blocked out of the image or a road that continues out of the frame and the viewer's eye goes with it. Sometimes this is where we find our subject. Think of an environmental portrait where your subject has an interesting foreground that possibly frames you subject and the subject with a background as a backdrop. Often your midground is your most versatile area in your photograph and should never be neglected.

Background is often the culmination of the journey in the photograph - the fulfillment of the viewer's interest. It can be the subject such as a magnificent mountain in grand landscapes where the viewer feels as if they have been on a grand adventure. Most often though, as the name implies, it becomes the backdrop to what is in the midground or foreground. When used as a backdrop, you'll need to take care of not including distracting elements such as a branch impaling your subject's head or bright highlights that lead the eye away from your subject. A good background keeps your viewer's attention in your photo for as long as possible.

Can you create interesting and compelling images without all three of these? Of course you can. This is another way to create compelling images that draw your viewer into the story your trying to tell.

SHAPES

We're going back to geometry class here for a minute and combining it with a bit of psychology. Sounds fun doesn't it?

Our brains need to organize the world in categories to help it make sense of the world. It becomes a sort of shorthand for the mind. We see a door and we know two things immediately - it is an egress and it is a rectangle. From there we build on the style of door, where it is located, and all sorts of things. But our immediate lizard-brain response is rectangle and escape.

Using shape is one of many ways we organize the world to help our lizard-brains understand what is going on around us. We see parallel lines on the ground and without having to think much we know that it is a pathway - the beginning of a journey (probably why I love leading lines so much in my images). We can strip our images down to the most elemental and create images based on shapes. We can look for triangles and curves/circles to add a sense of motion for our lizard-brains. Rectangles and squares add stability and safety.

How does this apply to composition? Well, think of the base elements of the story you're trying to tell. Is it a story of action? Then you will want to avoid creating and photographing squares and rectangles, instead you'll want to look for rectangles and curves in your elements. Do you want to tell the story of safety and security? Now would be the time to look for rectangles and squares.

So what's up with the image above that includes curves and squares? Let me explain it this way - our history is who we are, it is the foundation of our present, but time forever moves and builds upon our foundation.

FILL THE FRAME

Filling the Frame is a concept I heard often in my college days of studying photography. Back then, we used a substance called film and often could not crop our images especially if we were using transparency or slide film. So we needed to find the essential elements withing our composition and fill the frame with those elements and only those elements. We needed to conduct "border patrol" - checking the edges of your images to make sure you weren't cutting off anything essential and/or allowing anything distracting to encroach on your image. If there was, you'd need to re-compose. It is still a very good idea to conduct "border patrol" before releasing the shutter so that you aren't including distractions or excluding storytelling elements. Using film required us to analyze our composition and the story we were trying to tell and not include anything that was extraneous.

Filling the Frame was usually where I had the most difficulty in school. I often took the idea too literally and would fill my frame with the subject and only the subject often leaving out the most important element of the image - the storytelling quality that brilliant photographers understand. It about what story there is to be told and how you tell the story. So, filling the frame does not necessarily mean to fill the frame with your subject, but to fill it with the story, the feeling, the idea.

In the image of the ballerina, I was looking at a contemplative moment of the dancer resting between moves and poses. A quiet moment with her in her thoughts and studio. If I had moved closer to her, to fill my frame with the ballerina, it would not convey the same story - a story of quiet respite.

As you compose your images, think about the story to be told. Once you understand the story, fill your frame with only the elements that tell the story - nothing more and nothing less.

Ideas of Composition: Part 2

When last we met, you learned about 3 basic tools to include in your composition toolbox: Rule of Thirds, Symmetry and Balance, and Leading Lines. If you need a refresher, check out the article here.

Today we will be discussing how to use Curves, Rhythm and Pattern, and Framing to add impact to your images. These ideas often will make the viewer stop a little longer to study your image by showing motion and design elements that interest and intrigue. And isn't that what we want? To have our audience entranced by our images so that they will stay and interact with them for as long as possible?

Just like all composition ideas, these can be used in photos individually or in combination with others. Sometimes using two or more ideas together can create a higher interest or viewer impact. When you find your focal point or subject, play with the composition - look for leading lines that lead the eye to it especially if you place the subject using the rule of thirds. And how special will it look if those leading lines are also curving lines? So let's take a look at Curves, Rhythm and Pattern, and Framing.

CURVES

Similar to leading lines, using curves in your images help the viewer navigate the different elements of your images and leads them further into your photo. unlike leading lines,  curves add a sense of the dynamic - they suggest motion. Where a straight line appears static, a curve appears to glide through the scene in with grace and beauty. They can be the subject or lead the viewer to the subject or center of interest. Also similar to leading lines, curves can be apparent such at the curve in the above image that leads the viewer towards the brightly lit towers. Or they can be implied by the placement of objects within the frame.

Curves can also be the subject of your image. A simple arch of a tree branch or a series of arches leading you down a hallway. A bend of the river can lead you to the distant horizon or can invite you to sit on the bank to watch the water drift by. A Ferris Wheel or Merry-Go-Round captured with a slow shutter speed at night becomes curves and circles that embody the joys of childhood laughter. Ok, I'm waxing poetic here so let's move on.

When looking for curves to add to your images think of all the types of curves and you will begin to see them in your surroundings and compositions. One of the first you may think of is the C-curve which looks exactly like the letter C. Now rotate it 90 degrees either up or down. Now what do you have? An arch or a bowl. Can you think of scenes in your everyday life where you might find any of these? S-curves can be the most exciting as they lead you in and out of different scenic elements. Rivers bending through the landscape are great at showing us S-curves. And we can't forget about the simple circle or oval. A bit more static than an open curve, the circle or oval can help sort and order elements in your image as well as frame your subject. (more on that later)

RHYTHM & PATTERN

Rhythm and Pattern walk hand in hand with texture in photographs. Rhythm refers to how the eye moves through the image - how long it rests on an element before moving onto the next element. The elements are repetitive in nature yet not always the same size, shape, or color. Think of notes in a piece of music. Each note is distinct yet are similar especially when played by the same instrument. When strung together at different counts (length the note is held), they create rhythm and the basis of a piece of music. The same can be said with a photograph except now the eye has become the instrument and the elements of the image become the notes.

Enough visual notes and you begin to see a pattern which in music would become the final arrangement. In photography, they become the image. Many repeated patterns throughout the image and you begin to see texture. Abstract images play heavily with rhythm, pattern, and texture. The image above has a pattern that draws the eye through the scene. Although there isn't a defined subject, there is still interest in the play between gold and green, light and dark, reflected and real. Let your eye wander through the scene being mindful of the pauses and movement as your gaze takes you from break to break.

FRAMING

When we "frame up" an image, we tend to talk about laying out the elements of our scene within the borders of the image. We have a natural frame of what the camera will record on the sensor and write onto your SD card. But add a frame within that frame and you will find a way to direct your viewer to see almost exactly what you saw while in that moment. The frame itself can be the subject, but an even stronger use is to frame your subject. Making the viewer aware of the vast importance of your subject. When you frame an image and hang it on your wall, you are telling the world the importance of that photograph in your life - whether it's a photo of your children, a beloved pet, or a pretty scene from your last vacation - these photos that we put on display have the emphasis of being framed and are therefore important. The same can be said when you add a frame within your images - you are telling the viewer to "Look here. This is important."

A  frame can be quite literal such as a window or doorway. Or implied such as certain elements surrounding the subject. An arch of a tree branch embracing one side of your image can be a frame that directs the viewer's eye to reflect on the moss-covered rocks beyond. Billowing laundry hanging on a line can frame the laundress hanging a batch of freshly laundered linens. Look around you and see how much of the world you can see through windows and doors. Look through crowds of people and flowers to see beyond them, to something enticing, to something more.

You know have explored six composition rules. Your homework once again is to go out and play with each of these and combine them into something more. Don't worry about the test at the end of the day, as long as you go out and play, you'll pass.