in the blackness lurks
I enjoy pictures where imagination comes into play. Such as below where you have to wonder just what is hidden in that lurking blackness within the fissure of the rock. Dark areas, because of natural human apprehension, work well well to engage our imagination. Another area that can easily peak our viewers imagination is street photography with people in a natural setting. We are always concerned with the story involved in these areas and the mind starts to make up scenarios if the photography is done well enough. For nature/landscape photographers, if we can find a way to engage the imagination we have found the magic connection between photographer and viewer. It is step beyond the appreciation of beauty or grandeur found in a nature image.
In the image below I need to decrease the amount of items competing for the viewers attention but I did not like the straight monochrome version. I decided to take the greens of moss and lichen that were all over the rocks and ground out of the image by making the background layer monochrome. But before doing that I created 5 layers for the different color leafs and doing a color selection masked those leafs creating a layer mask on each layer. A bit of color controls on each of them and blending adjustments and I got the image I wanted.
A Chilly Autumn Day in Devil’s Den State Park, AR
