Framing and the art of pointing.

Looking at Burrard Inlet from Rocky Point Park

This is my first blog after being away for the summer.  I was out on a walk on Tuesday with a friend and we hiked around the east end of Burrard Inlet from Rocky Point Park to the old mill site.  There was a good collection of water birds, although the high tide meant that little of the intertidal zone was exposed.  Shorebirds were not to be seen.  I did get some good images of a great blue heron extracting a fish from the water after a lightning lunge though.

Framing and pointing are two techniques I favour when shooting landscapes.  The above shot utilizes a gap in the vegetation to frame the far shoreline.  It is amazing to see how framing will take a relatively mundane image and transform it into something more appealing.  I prefer to use mild, wispy edges instead of hard ones, although I have had success with both.  Framing works because it draws the eye into the scene.

Drawing the eye is an important part of what makes a photograph attractive.  Another way to do this is through pointing.  All kinds of things can be used to point, but in general, they have to be long rather than wide or elliptical in nature.  The path of the partly fallen tree moves from the outside inwards towards the central part of the image.  If you pay attention to how you look at the image you will notice that your eye tends to follow up its length.  Not all the time, of course, but it does lend itself towards that idea of drawing your eye.

I have hundreds of shots from my time away and will be sharing many of these photos with you throughout the year.  I am looking forward to returning to my blogging.  I just hope that you enjoy them. 

Thanks for reading.  www.ericspix.com