Never Mind The Landscape….

Most of us love a good landscape photograph, and if you’ve ventured out into the wilds then you’ll probably try and capture that with a photograph. While the rolling hills, ridges and peaks might look spectacular in real life, they are not always the aspects that turn a snap into a photograph.

There’s usually a foil required. It’s often a foreground item such as a lake that’s the largest item in thee photo, or perhaps a person. However, in all landscapes the sky has to be one of the most important aspects to add interest. It will, if you follow the rules, fill either a third or two thirds of the frame, so there has to be something in there that catches the eye and draws the viewer in.

Clouds, more than I can confidently name, provide a canvas that the sun often paints upon. While they can sometimes be interesting in their own right, it’s when lit up with the morning or evening light that they’re at their best. In the daytime, you may be lucky and they’ll provide much needed contrast in what could otherwise be a flat, workmanlike photograph. Even better are those crepuscular rays that are striking to the eye, but a mercurial sight to capture in any form that does justice to what you really saw.

In the evening, you may not even need those clouds. Wisps of vapour, invisible before the sunset illuminates them in all colours, always breathtaking. The sun itself, red, rather than the harsh light of day, is invariably the star of these photographs.

And when it gets dark, then the sky’s all you need. You don’t need cloud, sun or moon. This is where the usual light we seek works against us, as we try and paint in light that shone from a star millions of years ago before being rendered on our modern light sensitive camera sensors (or film if you’re brave enough!)

This is in response to the WordPress Daily Prompt – Sky.