I describe many of my fine art photographs as “graphically simple; technically precise” and this image from Edisto Beach State Park in South Carolina is a good example. A quick glance at the image reveals an arc and two straight lines, one line at a diagonal and one horizontal. There are distinct textures within each shape bounded by the lines creating distinct foreground, middle-ground and background regions. And as always, I love the warm/cool color combination.
This image is also provides a good lesson in persistence. Edisto Beach is pretty featureless, so there weren’t rock piles and driftwood formations to use to make a dramatic image. This particular morning the sky was devoid of any clouds that would add to the sunrise.
What the beach does have though are lots of shells, and many of them are grouped into shallow mounds spaced every 50 feet or so along the beach. By locating my camera on one of the mounds I was able to set up an interesting texture in the foreground, create the conditions for the waves to wrap around to create the arc, and also keep my feet dry. Then it was just a matter of finding the right timing for the waves to create interesting shapes.
Then the bird came hopping along. It seemed to have a finely tuned sense for which waves would be a threat and which it could safely ignore. Eventually it worked its way into my frame and posed for a few quick exposures before being chased off by the waves. For me, it’s the bird that really makes the image interesting.
