Here is a wonderful example, Simple Beauty Great Detail Colorado Wildflower in Black & White, of what lies just outside all our doors who live on the Western Slope and enjoy this resiliently rich country. The subject of this image was shot from directly above, handheld, and done in the middle of a bright and sunny day; let me say that again, shot in the middle of a bright and sunny early summer day.
A photographer’s ability to bend light and compose an image to suit their mind’s eye, in the instant case as if shot in-studio under model type lighting, is an indicator of one’s proficiency and often the cause for creating compelling original image capture. Not but a few inches behind this wildflower lies the ground; the earth covered in rocks, grasses, branches, and everything else that makes up the playa of high mountain deserts… though you’d never know by this shot. To be clear, the background of this image was not altered or removed in post processing, but instead effectively eliminated by arranging the shot beforehand and setting the camera and lens in such a way so as to capture this particularly spectacular though simple composition. Isn’t nature’s awesomeness grand!
Photographers, often at length, describe the pleasing effects of bokeh when discussing certain types of imagery… their conscious decisions to masterfully isolate an image’s primary subject against a silky smooth/out of focus background. This image plainly demonstrates, however, there are times to say “screw bokeh” and instead eliminate the background entirely… suspending the subject in the blackness of infinite space. That’s what I call isolation… and that’s why I call it Simple Beauty Great Detail Colorado Wildflower in Black & White.
