31 Aug
2012

Posted in: Arizona, Composition, Creativity, desert, Inspiration
By George Stocking    7 Comments

Be Bad To Be Good

After growing up in a pretty disciplined household I used to to do some minor rebelling. Nothing major; I didn’t steal any cars or rob any liquor stores, just participated in some minor league rough housing.  For instance, (to me and my crowd in my youth), the No Trespassing sign at the swim club was, at 1:00 in the morning, merely a suggestion, as were the signs requiring swim suits - until the police showed up of course. Then it was over the back fence and back to the case of beer we had stashed in the woods. Oops, underage drinking was another of those “rules” we had alot of fun ignoring back then.

Advance some 43 years. I have a white  hair, a grown child and a prothetic knee and hip. And still it seems that some things never change. Even now, the best time I can imagine for myself is to go out and break a few rules. Of course, these days I have fun by “breaking the rules of composition”  when I go shooting. (What did you expect? With the artificial knee and hip my fence climbing days are over. And alcohols legal for me now. Just not quite the same thrill as back then.)

Of course if you read this blog regularly, you are already aware that I don’t believe in compositional rulings and so I take great delight in finding those unique situations that allow me to (I believe successfully) break those conventions.

Its my belief that if you want to rise above the ever growing throngs of shooters, throwing these conventions to the virtual wind is a good place to start. Thats right, I’m postulating that you’ve got to be bad to be good. So if you have a more reticent personality and lack experience in the breaking bad arena heres a few suggestions to get you started.

• split a horizon smack down the middle of your frame; cut it in two. extra points if you can find a way to make it work vertically.
• center a subject. I mean dead center.
• put your brightest highlight (oh, say, the sun) on the edge of the frame
• or do what I did in todays image, find a diagonal line and run from one corner straight to the opposing corner.
  

  5DMII; 17-40L @ 19mm: 1/2 second @ f11

(For some reason a terrible pop tune keeps jumping in my head. It musta been some 80′s song or something.)

About George Stocking (52 Posts)

George Stocking is a professional freelance photographer, residing in Phoenix, AZ. He works regularly as a contract photographer for Arizona Highways, and his work often graces the pages of Arizona Highways Magazine, Calendars and Books. In addition to capturing the natural beauty of the Arizona Landscape, George also photographs the western United States and Canada. His work has appeared in numerous national publications, such as: Backpacker, Outdoor Photographer, USGA Golf Journal, Country Magazine, Audubon Calendars, Adventure West, America West Airlines Magazine, Portal Publications (posters), Impact, Towery Publications (books) and Smith Southwestern. Other publications include: Oregon Outside, Arizona Foothills, Arizona Adventure, and Plateau Magazine