Snow and Grasses in Open Water

This is another of the pictures I took on that magical day in Griffith Wood. If you have been looking at my pictures for the past several weeks, you may recognize that this picture is different from most that I have been showing. My compositions tend to be rather "tight"; there is little doubt as to what I am seeing, and what I want the viewer to see. This picture started out that way too; I was concentrating on the grasses in the patch of open water, and I was not showing all the beautiful snow surrounding the grasses. I then realized that I could do much more, so I stepped back, so to speak, by removing the cropping I had done, and suddenly, a tight composition relaxed into one in which the viewer could slowly look in all corners and appreciate more than just the grasses. There is nothing that really leads the eye out of the picture; instead, the eye keeps circling, lingering on all the different elements, and this allows the viewer to enjoy them in isolation and in concert.

[photo for week of 11 January 2010]

© David Butts, 2009