Perfect Weather

Dull. Grey. Overcast. Perfect weather for photography!

An intricate and weathered subject like this would be hard to properly show in strong sunlight. The big "softbox" of the overcast sky has filled in the shadows and brought a slightly surreal dreaminess to the scene and sbject.

Wandering Eyes

When we see something in real life our eyes wander around the scene. In a photograph we present just a part of a scene. Try not to frustrate the viewer's eyes.

In this picture you can start with the valley in the lower right and follow it up until it is out of sight. The line of mountains at the top points to the upper right corner. This is visually satisfying. Rocks and other recogniseable things that are chopped in half can be visually frustrating. Also, any logical "V" shaped lines that have their apex cut off.

As with all such advise, let your wandering eyes be the judge.

P.S. The picture was distorted when I first posted this. Now fixed.

Namaqualand Colour Riot II

Here some uncolourful piles of bricks lend contrast.

Black Is White

What colour is a tyre? Free yourself from convention. Feel the sunshine.

Namaqualand Colour Riot

To bring out the riot of colour which was the main subject I let most of the field of view blur with a large aperture. To give context I left a line of flowers in sharp focus for contrast. To further accentuate this zone I picked a place where some flowers were standing up slightly higher.

These are artistic judgements which have to be made at capture time. Photoshop cannot fix any of these things later.

Share A Dream

The key here was seeing the light and the scene and using a large aperture. Learning to see a scene as the lens will render it is something that can only come from experience so keep shooting and remember what you did for each picture.