2 minute read
Capture the Moment
with christine arnasiewicz
We Love Photography
Dylan Jackson - Sunrise over Avon Valley National Park.
Well done Dylan, you’ve won
Sunrises and sunsets are some of the most commonly photographed scenes. When you go away on a holiday there is always the token sunrise or sunset photo from your trip. The fact is though, they will turn what would otherwise be just another photo of a landscape scene into something amazing! That is just what Dylan Jackson has done here with his photograph of sunrise over Avon Valley National Park. When I first set eyes on this image I was instantly impressed with Dylan’s clever composition of the scene. Straight away I was drawn to the bush in the foreground, the sharp shadows of the grass trees and other shrubs with the newly risen
A $200
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sun backlighting their foliage. My eye was then led to the base of the hill in the background. It has a blue tinge and looks as though that whole area of hills has some fog cover. It gives the impression that it was a cold morning, yet the sun rising beside it gives the whole scene some warmth. Dylan has used the silhouette line of the hills to
then lead my eye up to the sun. It is partially obscured by the tree in the foreground, just perfectly enough not be too bright in the image, but to cause some beautiful warm rays to fan out in front of the tree trunk. This is a well-balanced image with Dylan giving a fine example of the use of rule of thirds. If you imagine drawing a grid in thirds across your image horizontally and vertically, and then composing the scene by placing any important focal subjects around the area where the lines would intersect, it will give your image a more natural and balanced look. We can see that Dylan has done this by composing the sun near what would be the top intersection line and the base of the hills near what would be a bottom intersection line. This not only balances the photo but the line of the hills leads your eye up to the sun. Well done Dylan on such a well thought out and composed image. Why don’t you try using the rule of thirds when next photographing a sunrise or sunset? During ‘golden hour’, the hour just after the sun rises or before it sets, the sky is ever changing with different hues of pink, purple, yellows and oranges. Throw some interesting clouds into the mix and you can be in for a real sky show and a very impressive photo to show for it! Maybe we'll see your photo in a future edition of Capture the Moment!
