Seeing the Scene
Antelope Island, Utah, March 2013
How do you see? What do you see? What is it about the scene that attracts your attention and makes you click the shutter button? I think these questions are the beginning of a great photograph. It is a process that starts with the first impression of the scene, and then the image I see with my mind’s eye is imprinted into my conscience, and then the process of actually making the photo begins. In this post I want to talk a little bit about my first impression of the scene, what I visualized, and how I developed the final image you see above.
First Impression
Back in 2013, the first time I went to Antelope Island in Utah was awesome! The weather was perfect, there it was comfortably cool and there was no wind. The water was perfectly still, reflecting the mountains on the horizon. The place felt serene. I have been to Antelope Island many times in the three years that I was in Utah, but that initial drive was always unique and it never looked the same again.
Visualizing the final photo
When I saw that scene, I saw the snow-covered mountain that looked to me like something out of the ice-covered South Pole. The water in the lake was completely still, making a really nice reflection, and the mountain far away looked like it was melting into the Lake. At the same time, a piece of an old tree was suspended on glass surface of the water. That is what I visualized in my mind when I saw this for the first time.
Post Process
I always remembered that scene and the way I visualized it and I always wanted to finish this picture. I started by looking once again over all the photos I took that day, seeking the photo that most closely resembled what I envisioned both compositionally and technically. Here are some of the photos that I was browsing through:
Snapshots from that day
None of these photos are spectacular in anyway, they are all straight out of camera (SOOC), and I had a really hard time finding the one snapshot that had the components of the shot I visualized. After looking at these photos over and over, I eventually narrowed it down to this one:
The Original SOOC shot
As you can see, it is not a great shot—the composition is flat, the horizon is crooked and cuts the photo in half, the tree trunk is centered and the foreground is flat and boring. At the same time, somehow this lucky snapshot had all the components of the final image I always visualized, but could never interpret. I looked at this photo many times and one day I decided to play with this photo and dig out the picture I saw.
This is the final picture I made and I am really happy with it. I think it represents the picture I saw in my mind that day!
The Final Edit
Even though the resolution and quality is not great, I think this is a lucky picture because when I was taking these photos over three years ago, I had no idea what I was doing, so having this gem sitting in the archive is almost random chance!
Conclusion
I have seen and looked at that scene and piece of tree sticking out of the water every time in the many times that I visited Antelope Island after that initial time. It never again looked the way it looked or made an impression on me the way it did the first time I saw the scene back in 2013, when I did not even know how to use my camera. It was not just the tree or the mountain; it was the whole experience that I attempt to infuse into the photo. I hope you can feel it too!
I believe that anyone can make the most awesome photos they can imagine! All they have to do is learn a few easy basics. I hope to inspire you to also pick up a camera and develop your own photographic vision.
If you love my content, subscribe to my Newsletter and follow me on