Composition: Yuba River Bridge

I’m enjoying creating these short videos about photo composition and such. Since folks seem to like them, I’ll just keep going!

For this one, the hubs Joe Dolister and I spent a weekend wandering about our local area, which is in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. There are so many little scenes like the one in this video, which are incredibly beautiful – but which we tend to simply drive by on our way somewhere else. This day, we stopped at them all!

I tend to be drawn to the juxtaposition of unlikely elements: movement and stillness, ancient and ephemeral, texture and smoothness. They’re interesting to me.  When two seemingly opposite elements play together beautifully in nature, I feel like I’m being instructed in how to live more fully in a multi-layered sort of way. Be quiet and thoughtful… and also keep moving. Be grounded and wise… and still gleefully inspired at a moment’s notice. Be interested in and good at many things… but always stand for one thing throughout. I love how it’s all right there, playing out in a simple scene from an unassuming bridge on just an average day  in the neighborhood.

In the shot I show in this video, I simply loved how the vertical-ness of the giant lodgepole pine trees anchor the image, even as the calm, steady flow of the Yuba River continually moves on through. I think that was the most powerful juxtaposition for me on this one… along with the diminishing lines of the river itself, made even more prominent with a 14mm prime lens. Not to mention the mad reflections! As above, so below. And so it goes. I hope you enjoy!