Afternoon Rain

Prayers Answered

Utah, U.S.A 2013      

Looking toward Monument Valley from Cedar Mesa

I could see rain falling on Monument Valley as I stood on the top of Cedar Mesa. And I thought of Clifford, our Navajo guide, who,  a couple of days earlier, had offered a prayer for rain at a sacred pool in Mystery Valley. He had told me that his prayers would be answered and to look for clouds to form. It may have taken a day or two, but they did form and the rain fell on the parched Navajo lands.

I didn’t post a photo yesterday because I went to a photo seminar in Los Angeles. I’ll tell you some of the things I learned as time goes by. Here’s one thing that I’m not sure I agree with: Always shoot in horizontal orientation.

The reason is this: because 99% of our photos are shown on the net and the horizontal format shows up bigger and better in thumbnails and on most blogs, you’ll be showing your work to its best advantage.  However, that isn’t always the case. My horizontals show up smaller than the one I actually post. (You can click on it to see the larger version, but for some reason no one really wants to click more than necessary. My verticals, however, show up larger than life.) 

I try to shoot verticals when the subject calls for them and sometimes when it doesn’t. I think the best maxim is this one. The best time to shoot a vertical is right after you’ve shot the horizontal. If your subject is a full length shot of one person, two persons or maybe even three then a vertical is called for. If you shoot a full length person horizontally, they are too small. I like to get in tight to get detail.  Yesterday’s instructor told us to just crop the horizontal to make a vertical if we needed vertical. I’ve never found that to be completely satisfactory. But maybe that’s just me. Try it yourself.

Sometimes I shoot a landscape in vertical format. Most times it’s not the best, but it can work. It works in this photo in Monument Valley.  Monument Valley is the ultimate in our ‘wide open spaces’. How is it that this vertical shot shows space? Because there is a distance between the foreground and the rock formation called The Rooster. Space or distance can be from near to far as well as from side to side. I don’t want my photos to look like everyone elses, do you? Try a vertical. Decide for yourself.

Monument Valley: The Rooster