Seeing Abstractly - Valley of Fire State Park

This picture was taken in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. Over the last 150 million years, compression, uplifting and erosion of sand dunes form the park fiery red sandstone that we seen today. Although the color is awesome, the wavy and swirling patterns of the sandstone stand out very well, and these combined provide endless creative opportunities. I decided to go for black-and-white conversion, which is the best way to see these shapes and patterns without much distraction of color.

Ok, what's next? The composition. I recalled a very useful composition strategy from Visual Flow by Ian Plant (it's a great ebook!!) - to create a better compositions, you must learn to see the scene abstractly. Instead of seeing rocks, mountains, and trees, you see the shapes, lines, and pattern. Importantly, organize them into the frame is the key.

This is the corresponding abstract diagram of the picture above:

The lines form by the sandstone and clouds point toward the triangular rock in the background (red). Perhaps, you may seen as the interplay between the five triangles formed by the sandstone and sky (green). All these lines and shapes guide you to go deeper into the scene.

Sometime we can be distracted by the beautiful scene. To get a great shot, we have to learn to see the scene in different ways. The lesson is, sit back and think before firing the shutter.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Church #2: From the Lectern of St Johannes Church

St Johannes Church is located at the northern end of Norrmalm, Stockholm. The parish can be dated back to 1651 and the current building was inaugurated in 1890. The church is Gothic Revival in style, with graceful and spectacular design. I am particularly attracted by its ornate interior, which is absolutely breathtaking! 

Weekend morning can be good timing to visit the church. I have been visiting this church for many times, despite its excellent location and vicinity to the city center, I haven't seen big crowds in there. This picture was taken from the tall lectern next to the altar - which is a rare opportunity for such a spectacular church. Sometimes, get taller will give you a fresh set of eye in composing, particularly in architectural photography.

Other than good composition and light, the most important part about church interior photography is respect. Rule no. 1 - ask the permission to shot.

Enjoy the beauty of St Johannes Church! Happy Friday!

Grand Texture at Grand Staircase

During my every trip, I use to be really busy in the midday - enjoying great meal in the restaurant, hiking, scouting for sunset location, visiting museum, filling up the gas tank, etc.

What's about photography? Most people might thought midday is not the time due to the harsh light. I think midday is great for many subject, e.g. black and white, intimate landscape, etc. Midday is also great for capturing detail - texture and pattern. Texture and pattern are found in most of the landscape photography but they are rarely a primary subject. They are often overlooked by photographer. Nevertheless, they can be pleasing and appealing. It's also a good training on how we "see" the smaller world through the lens.

I shot this picture when I was passing through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Highway 12) during the midday. I love the texture in the background and how the tree coordinate harmoniously with it and forming a nice scene. 

This is a good article for further reading: Nature Photographers Online Magazine: Texture and Pattern in Nature

Enjoy your midday!

"Dissecting" the Coral Pink Sand Dunes

This picture taken at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Utah. This is one of my favorite, of course, with plenty of reasons...

1. Golden hour - at a low angle, the sun cast a magical, golden grow across the sand dunes. Did I tell you light is important?

2. Composition - if you think abstractly (imagine everything in their abstract form - shape, color, contrast, etc.), you will notice the picture is formed by five triangles of different size and configuration. The contrast formed by light shade significantly enhance the formation of abstract triangles. Imagine if the picture taken during mid-day - can you see still the imaginary triangles?

3. Sense of scale - the ATV in the background gives a sense of scale to the picture. Wow! the sand dunes is huge! Don't you think so?

4. Gestalt principle - despite the discontinuity of the ATV trail, you might imagine the ATV is moving across the sand dunes, from the bottom right of the picture to the top right.

5. Simplicity - golden sand dunes plus an ATV. Is it simple enough? Sometime, less is more:)

Thanks for reading! What do you think?

p.s. This picture also published as Picture of the Day (October 11, 2013) at TodaysPhoto.org:
http://www.todaysphoto.org/picture-of-the-day/coral-pink-sand-dunes-s-p/