As serious photographers know, great images are crafted through the melding of vision, artistic ability, technical skill, and control of light. The making of master images is not simply a point-and-shoot exercise (you’ve heard the old adage: the way to prepare is f/8 and be there!).
Many of us enjoy working the outdoor world as our subject. So, given we don’t have God’s influence on the natural elements, we have difficulty controlling the light. So we learn to compensate for our lack of God-like abilities by learning our subject and its setting as best we can. When we learn to know the environment we’re shooting, we improve the odds of being on sight when great light happens. This often requires great planning, sacrifice, and patience.
Such is the case with this image.
I’ve photographed this general location dozens of times over the years; however, I’ve never been truly satisfied with my results. I always felt there was something more, something magical about this location than what I was pulling out of it.
I determined to promote the making of this image to prime-time. I studied out the visual elements and decided which items to capture in my image and which to exclude. Next, I played with perspective. I moved around the area, framing various compositions — capturing each framing for later review and critique. I determined which time of year would be best to get the maximum benefit of late evening sunlight sloping through the scene. I marked my calendar.
Upon my return to this location, I already knew what hour I wanted to arrive on scene, approximately where to set up my tripod, and how I wanted to frame the visual elements. I arrived early and confirmed my preconceptions. As the golden rays of late-evening light begin to reach through the scene, I altered my vision only slightly to better accommodate the long reach of shadows across the foreground.
That was it. I had my image!
Since introducing this image, it has quickly become popular. To my mind, this is testament to the study and care put into its making. I had become involved enough with my subject to best portray its magical qualities. I knew: 1) what visual elements I wanted to use, 2) the mood I wanted to portray, and 3) when the environment could best be leveraged to accommodate that mood. There was one final step: once on scene, study it one final time with all the elements in place and manage an artful composition to best complement the elements.
Although, arguably, the truck still remains the subject, I decided to move slightly to the right and lower my framing to include more foreground. I found the truck’s angle closely matched the angle of light and shadow. By moving my tripod somewhat right of where I had envisioned, I effectively set up the truck, light, and shadow at forty-five degree angles to lead the viewer’s eyes deeper into the image, creating a greater sense of depth. In lowering my framing, I placed the truck in the upper left third and leveraged the golden light, shadows, and sparse grass of this rural setting as valuable context to really punch-up this image’s sense of place.
Although some people contend the long shadows and golden light are the real subject of this photograph, I maintain it’s the truck. They counter by saying, with so much space given to light and shadow, they dominate, thus becoming more visually important than the truck. As I composed this image, I felt to give any less space to light and shadow would short-change the entire scene and rob it of emotional impact.
The really cool thing is that these people are even having this discussion with me! I will not argue to change their minds. I respect their interpretation. Art is defined in the eye of the beholder. I simply push them a little bit to facilitate crystallization of their reasoning.
Funny thing about such exchange of ideas, I find in doing so I often crystallize my own reasoning. What a nice gift!
So, thank you!
-Mike.
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