Shot of the Month – July 2020

In October 2019 I made a quick, mid-week run down to Oregon (Portland is about 3 hours away) to work on my landscape photography skills.  I mainly shoot wildlife so I need all the practice I can get.  I had visited some of the waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge in the summer and I wanted to see if autumn brought any interesting color to the compositions.  On this quick run, I only had Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning to make images – not much time but my goal was to try and get at least one good photo from the trip. The falls can get quite busy on the weekends so I went down in the middle of the week to, hopefully, avoid the crowds.

Late Wednesday afternoon I hiked up to Ponytail Falls and found the place deserted.  Ahhh, heaven.  I could commune with nature and compose my shots in peace.  I consider the trip a booming success having created this image — not bad for a wildlife guy!

I had to shoot two images to get the entire scene in sharp focus.  In the first image, I focused on the rocks in the foreground (leaving most of the scene behind blurry) while in the second image, I focused on the rocks about 2/3rds back in the scene (which left the rocks in the foreground blurry).  By merging the sharp elements from the two images together we get one image that is sharp from front to back.

A great way to improve your landscape images is to ensure that you have a strong element in the foreground of the image.  In this case, I used the rock in the lower left corner to anchor the photo.  The key to a compelling image is depth and this image has multiple layers — the rocks in the foreground, then the stream, the rocks and bushes a bit further back, then the falling water, and finally the rocks of the cliff face.

Truth be told I did place the yellow maple leaf on the rock — it was lying just next to the rock but I positioned it on the rock for better viewing as it helps tell the story and it is visually compelling.  I tried positioning the leaf in multiple places and in various orientations.  In the end, this composition worked best –  I like how the leaf stem guides your eye into the rest of the image.  I had started with “stem down” but it all clicked when I rotated the leave around into the “stem up” orientation.  I also like how the yellow leaf mirrors the yellow leaves on the bush in the far back right portion of the scene.

Together, these elements convey “Falls in the Fall.”  Just what I was looking for…

Until next month…..m

Here are a few links with ideas on how to improve your landscape compositions:

Importance of Foreground Elements (Video)

5 Landscape Mistakes to Avoid (Video)

How to get a perfect foreground (Article)

Importance of foreground in landscape photography (Article)

Nikon D850, Nikon 17-35mm (@ 17mm), f/8.0, 1.5 sec, -0.5 EV, ISO 64