This image sums up this week’s composition themes, leading lines, texture and complimentary color contrast. Not much to add to what I’ve already written on the subject this week. Processed in Topaz Adjust and Aperture 3.
Enjoy your weekend; I’ll see you next week.
Today’s image is once again from the Great Basin along US 50. In this image I was trying to capture the vastness of the Great Basin as well as the clouds that had been gathering all day. As I rode along US 50 this particular day I was treated to seeing a thunderstorm develop. During the day I watched as a large mass of clouds in the southern sky coalesced into a thunderstorm. As the day went on I noticed how every cloud in the sky moved over to become part of the storm. It was fascinating to see that even small clouds that were miles away from the main body would quickly move toward the growing mass until by the end of the day the entire sky had become part of the storm.
Compositionally I used the large boulder in the foreground as a way to bring the viewer into the scene. The triangles formed by the foreground element and the sloping terrain on the left side help to direct the viewer’s eyes down the highway and into the Great Basin while the clouds themselves frame the distant horizon. I used Topaz Adjust to process this image before applying some final tweaks in Aperture 3.
This is another photo incorporating the highway as a major compositional element. I can’t recall where I took this photo but I really like the way the highway sweeps across the frame from right to left forming several triangles that converge at the horizon. Even the clouds are forming triangular patterns and reinforcing the diagonal slopes of the distant mountains.
It is also pretty obvious that this photo was taken at midday yet it still has enough contrast and detail to remain interesting. I processed this image with Topaz Adjust before final sharpening was done in Aperture 3.
For me riding a motorcycle and taking photographs is really about the journey not the destination. I want to experience the vistas that unfold around the next bend in the road; I want to feel and smell the country I’m travelling through; then, hopefully, I’ll be able to convey the essence of those sensory experiences in my photos. I’m constantly struck by the beauty of the highway as it ribbons across the landscape and try to share that vision in my images. When I am riding out in the west I often pull over to the side of the road and photograph the scene that the highway has just revealed to me.
I find that by using the roads I’m travelling as compositional elements I can create very evocative images that show the allure of motorcycling and the grandeur of the terrain. This photo of Devils Tower in Wyoming shows how using the highway as a key element can really direct the viewer’s eye into the frame. Many people, when they are going to see a monument such as Devil’s Tower, let images slip by that would give a better sense of the place in their quest to get to and photograph the land form or feature that they seek.
This shot was enhanced in an older version of Topaz Adjust 3, the current version is version 5, and at that time the presets were pretty heavy handed. The later versions of Topaz Adjust are much more finessed in their effects and do a better job of enhancing photos than the earlier ones. I learned a lot from using those early versions and I am still a huge fan of presets as a way to get inspired by an image and the potential ways that I can process it to express my vision for the final product.
This photo was taken last winter along Floyd’s Fork Creek which is a tributary of the Ohio River. Due to the bright morning sunshine and the direction I was shooting the sky was pretty well blown out in the image before I edited the RAW file in Aperture 3 and then finished processing it in Topaz Adjust using the Spicify preset. I was able to bring some color into the sky by adjusting the strength of the preset while still keeping the image from becoming cartoonish.
This second image from this shoot is a macro shot of the ice along the edge of the stream. Once again using Topaz adjust I was able to intensify the colors in the scene while maintaining a sense of reality.
