We all know the draw of a lookout. The opportunity to take in those grand vistas, views of mountain ranges or large ocean views. When taking photos while travelling it is easy to focus on these scenic images. Many of the photos I take are panoramic images capturing the expanse of the Australian outback or coast. Often these are the first thing that captures the eye.
However a memory of a place is also about the detail. While an obvious example may be a close up of a flower, there are lots of other ways to capture the detail - it could be the colours, the textures and small objects that make up the scene.
Detail shots allow you to tell a broader story of your travels. It is an opportunity to show parts of a place in a different way to what many people see. Look for those things that normally may go un-noticed.
Below is an example from a trip to Fingal Bay, NSW.
In these images my aim was to capture the textures and shadows of the beach. when combined, they become more powerful telling a broader story. When composing the images together I have tried to keep each row a similar theme. for example in the image below the first row captures the shadows, the second row things found washed up on the beach, the third row is the green, and the fourth is the texture of the rocks.
So next time you are out slow down and look around. Look down, get down on your hands and knees. Take a closer look. You may be surprised with what you see.
For those that are interested, there are several programs around that you can use to combine photos together. Often I use Adobe Elements or Photoshop but in the example below this was in Lightroom. If you use the 'Print function' there are several picture packages already provided. The only variation is rather than printing you send the output as jpeg file.
