Beauty in Simplicity

One of the things I love about landscape photography is finding beauty in unexpected places. Many times you are in such a hurry to compose as many variations of a scene during the fleeting moments of sweet light available to you, that you don't REALLY get to take all the details and nuances in visually.


As I went into my 2010 archives, I came across this shot. I was capturing the sunrise on a clear morning on the South African "Wild Coast" near a little town called Haga-Haga. I was changing compositions here from the rising sun over the coastline to the interesting rock patterns that ran into the ocean perpendicular to the rising sun. I noticed the light was hitting the rocks nicely, and with only a little cloud cover in the sky on the horizon-line, I decided to compose for majority land and minimal sky.


Only after viewing it on my large screen at home did I notice the lovely nuances of colour and texture in the rocks patterns, and the way the rocks act as converging leading lines with the creases in the rock "floor".

f16  //  ISO-100  //  Blend of 2 images to tame dynamic range

I blended two exposures here to achieve optimal dynamic range.


Hope you liked this one! Let me know what you think, and if you've had similar experiences.


Morkel Erasmus