Mike Powell

Sometimes I make up stories when I look at one of my photographs. I imagine an entire scenario and create relationships between elements in the image. Perhaps I will even attribute human emotions and intentions to inanimate objects.

That was the case with a photo that I took of two trees last Friday at Shenandoah National Park, the first image below. I described the trees in a Facebook posting with these words, “Bereft of leaves, aged, and perhaps in the process of dying, the trees seemed to be reaching out, branches touching and limbs intertwined, together forming a beautiful arch in the autumn sunlight.”

I chose to emphasize the touching branches, but what happens when you change your perspective? If you zoom in, you might get a shot like the second image below, where the trees appear to be side-by-side, but separated. Do you imagine a different scenario in your mind?

In the third image, we are looking at the same two trees from yet another angle and a third tree is now in the frame? Is the smaller tree an offspring, making this a family portrait?

As you can see, I am in a bit of a weird, whimsical mood this morning. Perhaps your mind works in a more serious and pragmatic way. Still, I wanted to demonstrate that there are multiple ways to capture a subject and I find that changing the angle of view is one of the simplest and most effective ways of doing so.

All too many of the people at the National Park would stop their cars at overlooks and take a single shot and quickly move on. You can probably guess that I tended to linger longer, seeking new perspectives and imagining new ways of seeing the scenery.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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