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Tim May | all galleries >> Yosemite Journeys:: ::a collection of galleries >> GALLERY:: Yosemite's Elements ::Fall 2004 > Texture and Color
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15-OCT-2004

Texture and Color

El Captain is magnificent and I have photographed it often. Here I am trying to focus in on how the texture and color of the granite are beautiful within the grandeur.

Nikon Coolpix 8800
1/304s f/8.0 at 44.5mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Phil Douglis08-Nov-2004 00:31
Glad you both agree with my reasoning regarding that small branch in the lower left hand corner of the picture. In my workshops, John, I have always referred to rules as guidelines. Art has no room for rules. The great nature photographer Edward Weston once said that "following the rules of composition when making a picture is as meaningless as following law of gravity when talking a walk." In other words, we walk instinctively. And the best of photographers organize their images out of instinct, as well.
Tim May07-Nov-2004 18:15
Thank you both for your comments - I intentionally left the branch in though I must admit it was more for scale than message - I also think the branch balances the shadow of the lower right side of the image.
Guest 07-Nov-2004 03:06
Correct Phil, leave the branch in. This gives a feeling of scale for those who have not witnessed first hand the awesome size of this rock. For quite sometime I have referred to the “Rules” as guidelines. I find it easier to break guidelines than rules.
Phil Douglis05-Nov-2004 17:16
Austere, forbidding, and everlasting. You abstract the face of El Capitan and give us its essence, rather than its form.
I am sure there are some out there who would tell you to clone out that branch at lower left. They will call it a "distraction." Don't let such small minds prevail. Keep it in. It breaks the rule that tell us to either include a whole branch or no branch at all, but such rules are made to be broken. I like it because it links the permanent part of Yosemite to the transitory, vulnerable, living part. And by making that branch so small in scale, it reminds us how insignificant a tree really is when compared to something that has been created by nature over millions of years.