Rapturous! Inspirational & Interesting Photography

Most of us are able to look at a photograph and say ‘I like that picture’ or ‘I don’t like that picture.’ We can tell when something appeals to us or offends us. The photographer must then look at these elements when decomposing a photo and try and work out why do you like what you like (if you are looking to appeal to others – as may be the case with stock photography), or how to communicate your intention in the photograph when you take it?

In order to describe this, I am going to take a photograph from one of the photographic blogs that I read – Photos From Northern Norway. I like the way that Thomas Laupstad takes photographs with very clear communication of the environment around him. I have received permission to dissect one of his photos (in my very cumbersome way) to show you what I mean.

Below is the original photo.

It is a beautiful, clear scenery shot, very crisp and full of the winter day, that draws the viewer’s eye to the wave on the left hand side of the photo. Please click here to view it in all its glory on Thomas’ blog.

Below is my interpretation of how it does this.

Using the visual lines of the breaking waves in the foreground (going diagonally up and to the left) and the clouds on the horizon, the eye is naturally drawn across to the breaking wave on the left.

If I am understanding this concept correctly, this is almost textbook composition of a shot, that has resulted in a stunning photograph.

Thomas has a wonderful photographic blog of his surrounds, and I encourage you to explore, and I hope that you get something out of this post.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 10:58 am and is filed under Photography, Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.