One less bird
“In a good composition, one has the distinct impression that nothing could be added to or subtracted from the picture. This sense of completeness–of balance–is the key.“
- Art Wolfe
I occasionally get it in my head that if I remove some of the distractions in an image I will make it better. Yet, often when I do this I find that I ruin the balance within the image and start to make if look plastic. A look I am sure is a bit of a current popular phase, rather than an enduring look.
Perfection in a landscape looks false to me. Plastic. I stop believing it’s reality. I know that the era of believing a photograph as truth is sadly fading. If it isn’t fading, it is seriously being questioned.
I look at my sea gulls on the beach in the above photograph and momentarily I wonder if there are too many birds. Yet, I think if I remove one or ten, I loose something important in the photograph.
I know that when I compose, and when I choose my work to show others, I am assessing that sense of balance that a photograph has. When it’s right it’s fantastic, when it’s not the artwork fails.
Sea Gulls, on our Abstract Photography Workshop. South West Rocks. Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2018