“Sometimes you can tell a large story with a tiny subject.”
Eliot Porter
When I learned that our first morning in the Great Smoky Mountains would be spent photographing in the parking lot of a visitor center, I thought that I may have wasted a bit of money going there. For a hiking fanatic, sitting at the edge of one of the most beautiful natural areas in the world, heading to a parking lot to shoot seemed like a mistake. As usual, I was wrong.
Eliot Porter (1901-1990), a pioneer of color landscape photography, introduced the concept of the “Intimate Landscape.” Unlike a grand scene of mountain ranges, the intimate landscape focuses, literally, on the intimate part of a scene like the shape of a tree, the visual flow through a meadow, or the texture of water flowing over rocks. The intimate landscape is what we were looking for because a parking lot in a national park can offer a unique glimpse of the forest’s edge.
How I Did It – When photographing the intimate landscape it is important to notice the details. Dan Sniffen, a great West Coast photographer, uses the term “complex simplicity” to describe this process. A simple thing like a tree is really a complex array of branches, colors, textures and tonal range. The trick is to put all of these complexities together in a way that delights the viewer and invites them into the simple little piece of the world you are recording with your camera and lens.
Enjoy
Want to be more creative with your camera? Click Here
Like these photographs? They’re for sale as fine art prints. Please visit my new website to see more.
Beautiful photos 😀
Thanks very much.
Lovely pics!
Rich, I enjoyed the point of view and the views. I particularly liked #3 in which the dogwood blossoms are more significant against the total scene because of the B&W tones.
Love these intimate landscapes Rich! Spring is the perfect time of year to do this … when the leaves are small and lace-like so we can still see the structure of the tree.