Picture This

11 Oct Picture This

We just returned from a photography workshop in Telluride, Colorado conducted by noted landscape photographer John Fielder (https://www.johnfielder.com/). Waking up at ten thousand feet and looking out at tall peaks covered with bright golden aspen was awe-inspiring. Our entire perspective changed.

Fielder trained us to include five ingredients for quality landscape photos. They are: Color; is it cool, warm, black & white or multi-hued? Form or patterns like a dense aspen grove, reflecting pond or intersecting lines of fallen branches? Moment; what’s occurring with the subject right now that you can capture? Perspective; what is your relationship to the subject, or how does it make you feel? And View; what is the frame, or the context of the piece you’re featuring? 

Interestingly enough, these ingredients are readily translated when you compose your word pictures. Presentations are a series of images delivered verbally and translated by the imagination of the audience. When taking a photo, your job is to edit the material around you– cottonwood trees, barns, elk, clouds, and mountains. It’s the same when you select from data, concepts and ideas for your presentation. Follow the Five Elements to create images that move audiences and last. You already know how many words a good picture is worth.