Finding the right range
Birch Bark Abstract
An observation: Often when looking for a good photo and initially thinking there isn’t one I find something by either pulling back and widening my perspective or getting closer to gain a more detail view. By this I mean changing my physical point/position, not standing still and zooming in and out through a viewfinder. It’s a similar solution used for general problem solving — pulling back and viewing the overall situation while also examining details.
It often works for me.
This nature abstract is a closeup of Birch Bark, with some processing in Photoshop CS4. I like the patterns and earth tone colors in the image.
Don
A fine shot for its textures and color. I like your suggestion. In the old days with a fixed prime lens we had to do move in and out much more to get the desired framing. Zooms, I think, have made us lazy in that regard, but they are certainly handy. When using a tripod back then, I would move around with a viewing filter to decide the viewpoint before setting up the view camera.
Earl Moore
Even if I have a zoom lens mounted I find it beneficial in “finding the photos” if I move around. It helps me to “see the picture” before I try and frame it in the camera…if that makes any sense. I think basically the same thing you were talking about with your view camera.
Monte Stevens
I use both, zoom and fixed. I move around with both. I do like your idea of pulling back to get a better perspective. When working in engineering I usually had a difficult time trying to see the overall picture of a project because I was getting caught up in the details. I sometimes still do that.
Earl
I use both types of lens too and even if using a zoom I still “see more” if I move about and even with the zoom manually move closer or further. Just the way my brain works I guess.
Mark
What a great tree Earl. You could make this work in so many different ways.
Earl
Mark, thanks! I did about four different versions of this image during post processing and finally decided to at least post this one. I don’t know that I’m done with it yet, I keep coming back and looking at it so I may not be “there” yet.
Yvonne
Very true comments, some times you have to stand back or get close to really understand what is going on
Earl
Yvonne, thanks. Our minds will sometimes see what they expect to be seeing rather then something new or slightly different. For me, moving closer or back sometimes causes a “refresh”.
Eric Jeschke
Very nice, Earl. I like the warm feeling of light in this photograph. It looks like that special “winter sunlight”.
–Eric
Earl Moore
Eric, thanks. I agree it does have the look and feel of warm defused light.
Chris Klug
Love this image. At first, I wondered why you didn’t process this as b&w, then I re-considered, and think the subtle color really makes the image. Wonderful.
Earl
Thanks, Chris. During post-processing I did a b&w version as well, which works, but I felt this color version was better for the reasons you mentioned.