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Lens-Artists Challenge #277 – Empty Spaces

Sunset at Sea

This week, it’s Patti’s theme for us to respond. Her “Empty Spaces” challenge leaves room for interpretation. She writes, ” Empty space is all around us. It’s a wide-open sky with no clouds. It’s a field with a lone tree in the middle. But what’s empty space in photography?” You can view her challenge post here.

My gallery will focus on two kinds of empty space, subjects that feature little but air or water within them, those really empty spaces like the ocean in my opening photo. Secondly, I included a couple of images where I used empty space in the image to focus on the subject.

Except for the freighter on the left of the image, there is only water and that beautiful golden sky. I could be easily accused of overbaking this image. Still, if you check my original Cellpic Sunday that featured his post here, you’ll also see the original image and notice that I actually “toned down” the intense sky in the image above.

Meteor Crater, Arizona.

Some 50,000 years ago, a giant meteor came crashing into the Arizona desert. The dent it made in the earth’s surface created a vast empty space that needed a large panoramic image to depict the size of the hole. From this image, it is hard to gauge the depth of the crater. At the bottom of the crater, that small lighter-colored area is some quite large mining equipment.

Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado features amazingly giant sand dunes. You can get an impression of the scale of these dunes when you realize that all of those “little colored dots” are people walking to and from the dunes.

The Great Basin.

In Nevada, the Great Basin National Park is named after a major geologic feature. The Great Basin is a vast and rugged region characterized by its arid climate, and alternating basin and mountain range topography. The mountains are often capped with snow, while the valleys are dry and barren. Successive basins and ranges cover nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California.

Minimalist.

The last two of my images feature empty spaces as a compositional tool. I captured this subject against a cloudy gray sky. I decided to go with a minimalist approach, cropped out the main tree trunk on the right, and converted the photo to black-and-white. Putting the subject in the lower right in the Rule of Thirds left the rest of the image almost completely empty.

Leopard at Natuwa.

At a wildlife rescue site in Costa Rica, I captured this leopard crouched behind a branch. I didn’t care much for the image right out of the camera but when I decided to add it to a collection of low-key animal portraits, I think the processing brought out the stealthy nature of the subject. Darkening the log in front and the jungle background drew more attention to the leopard’s face. I then used a radial fill to raise the exposure on his face to draw the viewer’s eyes to the subject.

Patti left us plenty of latitude in featuring empty spaces, so I focused my post on a compositional tool that I use more than I realized and those truly empty spaces found in nature. You can view my gallery of images in 2K HD on my Flickr site here.

My wife and I are cruising this week so my Internet coverage is spotty and limited to about 20 minutes each per day. I may be tardy in responding to comments, but I am interested in your thoughts on the compositional use of empty space. I will respond when I can connect to the Internet. Next week it’s Amy’s turn to host the challenge. If you’d like to respond to a challenge post but aren’t sure how to get started, you can find more information here.

John Steiner

42 comments

  4. Hi John. I like how you organized your images in this post. It really highlights the impact of empty space. The Great Sand Dunes image and the leopard are also my favorites. I hope your trip continues to be terrific. Enjoy!

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  10. Great photos, as always. The Great Sand Dunes is quite the place. At first you think ‘let’s hike to the top’, until you start and realize the top is very, very, VERY far away.

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  11. Fantastic gallery John. I can appreciate your sunset photo, John as we are somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. It is very much a reset in its own way. Vast empty, open spaces of nothingness and to see a ship in the distance makes you feel like you have won a prize. A beautiful image. My favorites are the jaguar, and the Great Sand Dunes.Keep enjoying your trip.

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  14. John, these are fascinating and beautiful images. The crater, sand dunes, and great basin photos are very intriguing. I definitely need to add those locations to my list for future travels. Also, your parting shot of the leopard was striking. The editing was top notch. Darkening the surrounding areas and highlighting the leopard’s face and eyes were perfect to convey the mood of the photo. Well done!

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  15. Wonderful images for the challenge, John. The sand dunes shot is astonishing in that it highlights the scale of the dunes! Love the leopard shot, too, but really I thought they were all excellent. Enjoy your cruise.

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  17. Wonderful choices John – I thought for sure the first image would be from your current cruise but I think not after reading your text. I love the leopard – was it zoo-like or did it have room to roam? The crater is amazing! well done this week as usual

    Reply

    • Unfortunately it was zoo-like, but all of the animals at Natuwa are rescues that can not survive in the wild. The organization doesn’t appear to have the physical space to expand.

      Reply

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