It's All About the Light

How do you turn the ordinary into the extraordinary? Wait for the light! That is exactly how I turned your everyday swamp into a mysterious and compelling photograph. On one of my workshops last fall we were heading back to my gallery after a great morning of photography when I noticed how beautiful the light was as it shone through the stark dead trees of a nearby swamp. I have never given this swamp the time of day before as it is right off the road and not very photogenic (or so I thought), however, today was different. The sun was shining though the mist creating very dramatic light, the vertical lines of the trees were further emphasized by their almost silhouette appearance. The mist had the effect of softening the background and eliminating the sense of clutter normally found in these types of scenes. I just had to stop to photograph it!

I new right away that I wanted a panoramic format for this shot so I set up my composition to allow for cropping later. I focused just slightly ahead of the foreground grasses and used an aperture of F/18 which resulted in a 1/100th of a second shutter speed. These were "high key" lighting conditions which usually result in a slightly underexposed image so I needed to add about 2/3 of a stop of exposure.

All said and done this image when printed 18"x54" is stunning. I brought two copies to the One of a Kind Show in Toronto and they were quickly snatched up on the first day. Just goes to show that in the right light the most ordinary of subjects can be transformed into the extraordinary.