The City At Night

Often much cooler than the city by day. Often best seen within an hour of sundown when there is still some colour in the sky.

Underexposed?

According to the meter? Yes. But at the correct exposure this would be nothing interesting.

Here Comes The Sun

The sun is not in this image. But you know where it is, don't you?

Scale

Something of known size (person, car, house) can really help to illustrate the size of something else in the frame whose scale might be otherwise ambiguous.

Yes, those are two people. One with a red hat.

Faults Or Features

Here you can see some lens effects. One is "ghosting" lens flare. These are the coloured round shapes in the picture. The other is "veiling" lens flare. This is the cause of the overall lightening of the image as if looking through a white veil. These are effects that lenses can exhibit if there is a strong light source (like the sun) in or near the edge of the picture. Better lenses exhibit these effects less and "user additions" (like uncoated filters) can worsen them.

Like "weeds", however, "defects" are a matter of perspective and of taste. Sometimes -- just like anything else seen in pictures but not seen with our naked eye -- they can be used to artistic effect.

A River Runs Through It

Onion Creek.

I Can See For Miles

Sometimes you need to show a little more to convey the vastness of a vista.

Sometimes.

This is a wide shot that works. This is largely because of the leading foreground and the additional leading clouds. It is very easy to go wrong with a wide angle. You need a lot of view with an absence of distractions. A rare thing.

A Sign of Things to Come

There is no such thing as a subject too simple to fill the frame with.

Look Up III!

Looking up can be very productive! The transition from dark to light as you look up is another strong element of this image.

Look Up II!

Keys to this are the wide angle perspective, the mottled lighting and the line leading into it form the lower left.

After The Storm

After a storm is a very good time to go hunting for great light.

Bold Colours, Strong Textures, Simple Geometry

Nothing more required.

Backlighting

One of the things that makes slide film look so fantastic is back lighting. It's also why photos look great on a computer screen. It works for photographic subjects too. Like this leaf!

Look Up!

A shot like this brings you in better than a "straight" shot.