Outdoor Tips

Photographic Super Course: The Art of Seeing Page 5

Driving back to Los Angeles from a photo shoot in the desert, I saw these hillside structures and thought they looked like cartoon "monsters" (or "robo-cats" as one friend put it on seeing this photo.) I parked, made the shot with a telephoto lens, and added a "dangerous" red tone in Photoshop.

Moving in with a wide-angle lens emphasizes the structure's height (top); moving back with a telephoto lens minimizes converging verticals (bottom—of course, the lines of this structure actually do converge).

If you can get to a position directly beneath a powerline support, and shoot straight up at it with a wide-angle lens, you can capture interesting abstract patterns like this one (shot with a Sigma 15-30mm zoom on a Canon EOS-3 35mm SLR at the 15mm focal length, and cropped square). It's important to carefully align yourself directly beneath the structure; if you're off-center at all, the symmetry will vanish.

Here, powerline structures on a distant hill add interest to a sunrise shot.
 Fun with Power Pylons
To most outdoor photographers, powerlines and their supports are major eyesores. But they can also be fun photo subjects. Here are some examples.

Driving back to Los Angeles from a photo shoot in the desert, I saw these hillside structures and thought they looked like cartoon "monsters" (or "robo-cats," as one friend put it on seeing this photo). I parked, made the shot with a telephoto lens, and added a "dangerous" red tone in Photoshop.

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