Vision | Russ Bishop Photography

Landscape Tip: What’s Your Angle? The Wave, Coyote Buttes, Paria-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona — “Sands of Time” ~ The Wave, Paria-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona

Landscape Tip: What’s Your Angle? Captivating landscape photography typically includes one or more elements that make it stand out from the crowd. Magical light, richly saturated colors, and dramatic vistas can all make for great images, but sometimes we’re not rewarded with these sure-fire conditions even after the long hike or braving the inclement weather.

Fortunately there are other ways to create visually dynamic imagery when mother nature is not cooperating – namely your lens and your eyes. Perspective is a powerful tool that is limited only by your choice of focal length and framing.

A wide-angle lens with both excellent depth of field and a wide field of view can be used to emphasize a foreground element such as a plant or rock within the context of its larger mountain or desert environment. In most cases this also creates visual tension within the frame by directing the viewer’s eye from near to far elements, which in turn adds drama to the composition.

So the next time the elements aren’t working in your favor try adding a little visual spice to the scene with this simple technique. A subtle change in perspective through lens selection or camera position can entice your viewers to linger within the frame and might just turn a good image into a great one.

There’s something fascinating about visual movement that stirs our souls and creates a visceral response. I’m not referring to the exhilaration of skydiving or skiing down a mountain, but the more subtle visual connections we make while witnessing a dance performed on a stage, watching clouds race across a desert sky, or simply viewing a photograph of a silky waterfall frozen in time.

As photographers we have the privilege of stopping time or even slowing it down just long enough to give our viewers a glimpse of a world that can never be seen with our own eyes. We can illustrate a repetitive process over time such as a series of waves washing upon a shore, or create an abstract vision of color and form that has no resemblance to the natural world.

At these moments, there is a bond that occurs between subject and viewer that’s hard to put into words. Perhaps it’s our secret desire to slow the inevitable march of time or just a sense of voyeurism at seeing something beautiful that we know we shouldn’t be able to. I like to think of it as the emotion of motion.

Tag: Vision

Landscape Tip: What’s Your Angle?

The Emotion of Motion