PHOTOGRAPHING LAYERS

If we really look, layers are all around us. We can find them in nature, hillsides, in the sky, inanimate objects, etc. They are interesting, unique, artistic, and can at time give us some cool abstracts.

Let me share some of the layers I have found while observing life with my camera.

Let's start with this farm field in eastern Colorado. We usually associate Colorado with mountains and skiing, but the eastern prairies give us a different kind of beauty.

These mountains near Luzern, Switzerland, created some layers in a blue haze. It's not always necessary, nor desirable, to have complete detail in our images. Sometimes the opposite can be more pleasing and effective.

Here are more mountain layers, but from the state of Arkansas. This view is from Petit Jean Mountain in central Arkansas. It's a beautiful area to explore. This scene was at sunset. And, yes, the awesome colors looked just like that. 

I found these layers at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The big peak in the background is Pikes Peak, one of Colorado's fifty-six "Fourteeners"-- peaks that are over 14,000' in elevation.

This 1929 staircase in The Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas, creates really artistic curved layers.  Like I said, I see layers everywhere.

                   

 Now these are layers! A combination of farm and mountain layers. Couldn't resist! 

I saw this layer of clouds at sunset. I didn't have my camera, so I rushed home, grabbed my camera, and ran to this site before the sun went down! Thank goodness I was only a block away! I hadn't seen anything like this. I haven't seen anything like this since then. In my book, Right Brain Photography, I talk about the concept of impermanence. When we see something as unique as this, we won't get a second chance. 

This is a different look at layers. I saw different layers of nature--water, dunes, and a mountain range, all harmonizing to give me a great composition.

It's easier to see layers if we take the labels off. For example, in the image above, if we see "creek," we will tend to photograph the creek. If we see "sand dunes," we will tend to photograph the dunes, etc. Message: don't get addicted to labels; the labels we were programmed to learn in order to identify things in life. 

Okay, I'll throw one more in just for fun. Can you see layers? Not benches, not rocks, not
trees............layers. Now go challenge yourself and look for them. 

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