In life, you sometimes have to jump off the cliff to see the ground below. This idea especially holds true in photographing the world around us. Perspectives are a key component of a good photograph. Show the world from a unique perspective and it forces people to ponder.
This photograph was made of the sun setting over the Hood Canal outside of Seattle, Washington. What I found interesting about this scene was the clear delineation of various ecosystems as they were painted under incredible colors of the evening sun. With that in mind, I headed down to the beach near where my wife and I were having dinner to capture this moment.
Most of the time, I can see the image I am going to capture by looking through the viewfinder on my camera. In this case, however, I was holding the camera so low to the ground, trying to get a unique angle, that I had no idea what I got until I examined the shots after. The camera was, literally, about half an inch off the ground and I was in a crouched position in attempts to keep the camera steady.
What made this image work was the identification of all the elements (the rocks on the shore, the water in the canal, the far shoreline, and the sky). I hoped all would come out well, but I was blindly pressing the shutter release and hoping for the best.
My hope with this image is the identification of how interlaced the worlds of nature really are. This is accentuated by the various elements of the shot leading from one to the next. Where one of these elements ended, another began.
Did I know how this was going to turn out? No. Yet if you take that leap and just experiment, you can leave the world of what you know and venture into worlds you do not. Sometimes the results are better than others. Nevertheless, you have to take that leap to even be in the game.
In this case, it was only after I leapt off the proverbial cliff that I could make out the ground below.
This image is available for purchase here.