I expect that each of you had a wonderful Christmas! Hopefully Santa left you something nice in your stocking.
Below you will find the imagery of six successful photographers. Take note of their compositions. Sometimes it pays to be different, and sometimes it pays to be traditional. Either way, these photographers create dynamic comps.
This is the first time I have shared an Art Wolfe picture. I have sung his praises many times and most people agree that Art is also a really good guy. Art along with a selected few, is also a true professional……$. You will notice his image is smaller than the rest. Art does not give away his images (except for charity), and if you copy and save one, it will be small enough to be of no financial use to you. Veteran and successful image makers like Art, John Shaw and a few others, love photography but run their business like…..well….a business. Notice in the Denise Ippolito image, how the out of focus foliage does not obstruct or obscure, but compliments the composition. While I love all of these images, my favorite is definitely Piper’s shot of the Baboon. She shares more images of indigenous cultures than she does wildlife or landscapes, but her sense of composition is always powerful regardless of the subject.
Art Wolfe www.artwolfe.com
Denise Ippolito
As always, it has been an honor to bring you the work such superb photographer/artists
A few of my own I have never actually shared any of the landscapes below. I say actually, because I have shown other versions of the final image.
A different view. As I have said many times before, the Badlands of South Dakota offers more diverse photo opportunities than any “rock park” that I have visited. This sunrise image was made on transparency film around the year 2000. If memory serves, it was late winter and the pinkish/purplish hues from the rising sun painted the rock in beautiful tones. I loved that part of the scene would be in shadow. This is a section of rock that I have never shown before. The edge to edge uniformity makes it look like parts of Bryce Canyon Utah, although the lack of warm sandstone says South Dakota more than Utah.
I don’t think I have ever shared this shot and that is probably because the light here is kind of average. This was made in the low desert of Arizona on a winter’s day. It was also made on film, in this case in the late 1980s or early 90s. It took no small doing to find a composition with at least some order to it. Ocotillo (left) and Walking Stick (near right) cactus tell us that this is the belly of the desert. Despite that and the fact that it was winter, there is quite a bit of green in this image. That grouping of dish pan shaped cacti in between the two aforementioned cacti, is Prickly Pear. That cactus is very common throughout the west and some other areas of North America. It is edible. The most famous cactus in this part of the world is the Saguaro. You can see a few in the distance but the whole point to this image was to avoid Saguaro and compose with other types of cacti. This is a remote portion of the Sonoran Desert. I love hiking the desert.
I would call these clouds low hanging, except that my vantage point was already about 9,000 feet in elevation. I guess clouds just become patches of fog when you are high in the mountains. There was not a lot to making this picture (digital original) except that I opted for an exposure that would keep the clouds light in tone. That difference between the clouds and the mountains helps keep some drama in the image.
I have shown you sunset pictures of this northeast Utah landscape before. All of those shots contained a nearby lake in the photo. I enjoyed the contrast of the dry mountains and the wet lake, but I always make as many pictures as I can, of any given location. When the light is as fleeting as it was that night, knowing how to use my equipment instinctively is a benefit. After making this shot I ventured on a long night-time drive through the Wyoming mountains. The same mountains that acted as the platform for me when I made this picture. This is a digital original.
For you photographers in this area, I suggested in a recent post that there must be a few Snowy Owls in this area by now. There indeed has been a pair of Snowies here in Racine near the harbor. There has been at least one Bald Eagle seen in this area. There have been at least two eagle sightings with one being right above my house. Bald Eagles are abundant in Wisconsin but here in the southeast corner they are still unusual. I should add that none of these sightings were by me.
Have the best of days, Wayne
Earth Images Blog by Wayne Nelson 