ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY

with Cathy & Gordon ILLG

PHOTO TIPS

Creating strong scenic images during the fall can be one of the hardest tasks in photography. It’s not that there is nothing worthwhile to shoot at this time of year, obviously. The problem is that incredible combinations of color bombard us from every direction, and the tendency is to try to include all of it in the photo. And too many elements in an image just compete with each other and confuse the viewer. Simpler is almost always better. Luckily, there are enough strategies for dealing with these difficulties to fill a book, and today we’ll concentrate on one of the easiest to master.     

How much of the scene do you need to include for your viewer to know what season it is? Not very much. One colorful leaf lying on a rock is all it takes. You don’t need to show huge expanses of hills covered with fall color. And after you take a few shots of those huge expanses (who can resist them after all?), start looking a little closer and a lot tighter.

One of the best methods of creating strong autumn scenics is to shoot what Elliot Porter called "Intimate Landscapes." Intimate landscapes are small parts of the big scene that give the viewer a good feel for the whole. In this kind of photo, the photographer includes very few elements that could compete as centers of interest. The trick is to identify the dominant elements that make a scene so dramatic, and to simplify the image so that it includes only those dominant elements and maybe a few supporting ones.   

Let’s say you are lucky enough to find a series of cascades splashing through a landscape of golden aspen leaves (it could happen!). Most photographers initial reaction is to shoot the entire stretch of stream, include as many cascades and as much gold color as the lens will allow. This shot may even be pretty good, but chances are there will be some fallen logs and other clutter detracting from the image. Try picking out the part of the cascade that gives the scene its dynamic feel, and focusing on that. There will still be plenty of gold leaves in the scene, and most of the clutter will be eliminated.

In an autumn wood where you’re surrounded by color, how do you pick out the dominant elements? How do you simplify such a scene? The solution may be focusing on just a few of the millions of leaves around you. Maybe some leaves have fallen on a mossy log or a tiny grove of mushrooms. Compose around something like this and you’ve simplified your scene down to just a couple of elements, which is just about perfect.

Hopefully this autumn will find you in a place where you have to make these decisions. Take some time to appreciate the beauty of the magnificent scene around you. Then narrow your focus and start looking for pictures.