IMG class=bracketarticleopen src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-bracket-left1.gif”How-ToIMG class=bracketarticleclose src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-bracket-right1.gif”BRText Photography By Jack DykingaIMG border=0 src=”http://www.photo-natural.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/wpid-lead1.jpg” width=645 height=400BRWorking the landscape means making an effort to keep finding new compositions. In the series from White Sands National Monument in New Mexico (this page) and the series from Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park (next page), Jack Dykinga continued to experiment with the scenes as the sun rose. He let his thinking evolve with the light. /EMBROccasionally, strong images appear to suddenly jump into my camera, but that’s not the norm. I usually spend a lot of time fussing about compositions. I circle the principal elements to imagine compositions, I change the camera angle, I shoot into the light or with the light, and I change lens focal lengths. I call this working the situation. POf course, there’s always something about a subject or scene that draws my initial attention. The challenge is to create an image that shows the viewer the aspect I found so interesting. After hiking all over the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, I found a curved yucca emerging from a partially buried base in a pristine section of dunes. I loved the simplicity of the scene. The series of six images shown here demonstrates how I worked the situation./PPMy first image was made as the predawn Earth-shadow light began to illuminate the sky [Fig. 1]. I wanted to show the transition of color in the sky and composed accordingly. I left plenty of room at the top of the frame to illustrate the light known as the Belt of Venus and photographed the progression of the light’s intensity and color until I felt I had what I was after. Ultimately, this occurred when the first light of dawn kissed the mountainous background./PPBRThen my attention shifted to the mountains, which were becoming more important as they became illuminated. I had lost the gradation in the sky, so I deemphasized the sky by tilting the camera downward. The result is seen in the second image [Fig. 2]./PPWhile I felt the composition worked in the second image, it was not as strong as my initial image. I took a few remaining sips of coffee and watched and waited./PPAs the sun rose higher, new elements of design became apparent. Strong shadows extended across the dune field, creating new, but quickly changing opportunities. Where once I enjoyed the luxury of slow, deliberate and careful composing of photographs, I was now hurriedly reacting to shadows on the move to capture the third image [Fig. 3]./PPI watched the yucca fairly glow in the dawn light as shadows created form and design. In this next photo, I shifted position to emphasize the shadows of the yucca itself [Fig. 4]. But my own footprints were mucking up the composition so I carefully repositioned to avoid showing my missteps./PPOne of the things I learned from the publishing world is to make images in both vertical and horizontal orientations, so I oriented the camera to portrait position to photograph the fifth image [Fig. 5]./PPThe placement of the yucca stalk against a dune-shadowed background afforded me a new way to frame. In the sixth image, using dark shadow bands at the top and bottom of the frame, I was taking advantage of natural landscape elements to concentrate interest on the curved yucca [Fig. 6]. But let’s look at the distances around the frame. The base of the yucca nearly mirrors the distance of the top shadow line. The yucca blades at the left are set off, and are illuminated and framed against the background shadow. Finally, the direction that the yucca is leaning leads the eye into the frame. BR/PBR
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