Land Lines

How to Use Lines in Nature to Draw the Viewer Into Your Landscape Photos.

- David W. Shaw

FROM MY PERCH ON A ROCK OUTCROP ABOVE THE ARCTIC RIVER, I could make out every detail of the valley. The autumn tundra was a mosaic of red, orange, and yellow. The river flowed pale blue below the gray of storm clouds that were, in turn, lit with just a hint of sunset light. I wasn’t sure how that last splash of color found its way through the lowering clouds and veils of rain, but it lit the valley in rose light. In the scene before me the high-contrast lines stood out: the blue river aside the red tundra, the crisscrossing ridges of the mountains, and the edges of swirling clouds.

This, like every scene, was a maze of interacting lines. My job was to take those confused lines and organize them into a single, successful image. To use those lines—some clear, some simply implied—I needed to reduce the chaos to an image pleasing to the eye. There above the river it was easy, as the light, the color, and the interaction of all those elements came together as though I’d planned it.

I composed, focused, and shot.

THE IMAGE HOOK