OP – The Blog

A Trip to Crane Flat During a recent series of weather systems in Yosemite, I kept checking the radar and satellite images online, looking for an opportunity to photograph a clearing storm. One morning looked promising, so I drove up to Yosemite Valley early, but found no snow. It looked like the snow level had  

Depth can be a powerful tool in photography. Our medium is two-dimensional, but a sense of depth, an illusion of space and distance, can make the viewer feel like part of the scene, and literally and figuratively add another dimension to a photograph. A Common Formula This image of El Capitan follows a common formula  

(© Ian Plant) In my new ebook Visual Flow: Mastering the Art of Composition, I discuss a number of compositional tools and techniques which have been used by the masters of painting and photography for centuries. The book is very comprehensive, so for this article I’ve tried to distill the concepts discussed in the book  

Here’s another long-awaited installment in my photo critique series. This time we’ll look at a photograph by Vaibhav Tripathi called “Winter Mist Rising Beneath Half Dome,” from my home territory, Yosemite National Park. It’s an interesting study in composition, and directing the viewer’s eye. Light and Weather The light is soft — no direct sunlight  

(© Ian Plant) We’re taught early on to avoid putting our main subject in the center of the composition, and perhaps with good reason. Too often, as beginners, we point our cameras right at our subject, leading to static, boring compositions. At some point, we learn the so-called “Rule of Thirds,” which teaches us to  

Last Thursday my wife Claudia and I – and our dog Rider – went to Shuteye Peak to photograph the moonrise. (Well Claudia and I went for the moonrise – Rider went to look for squirrels.) We had a great time, and it was a really fun adventure, but being on top of this mountain reminded me of why it’s difficult to make good photographs from high vantage points – especially when it’s an unfamiliar location 

At Tenaya Lake last week my workshop student and I watched and photographed a spectacular, constantly-changing cloud display for over two hours. I made many images, including the one at the top of this post (you can see two more here and here). With the lake in the foreground every composition included a prominent horizon  

Planning The future is uncertain, so we try to control it by planning. We think that if we do A and B the result will be C. But sometimes there are too many variables that we can’t account for, so the result might not be C—it could be D, or E, or even Z. Photographers  

I know it’s been awhile since the last critique; it’s been hard to find the time lately. But many of you have told me how much you like the critiques, and I really appreciate that, and I’m happy to have the opportunity to do another one. I’m writing this critique, rather than doing it by  

Visual balance can sometimes be difficult to achieve in a photograph , but it can make the difference between a pedestrian portrait – and a more compelling one. When I set out to photograph this wild Ring-tailed Lemur, for example, resting in a tree, I chose not to place him directly in the middle of