We have scouted over a dozen places surrounding Shurbrooke the past few days in preparation for CAPTURE Quebec. Can’t believe it starts today! Though we have visited many locations when it was cloudy and snowy, it was nice to visit a few places when the sun was out. There’s the luxury of color, something very hard to find at this time of year.
This spot is on a friends farm about 40 minutes from Sherbrooke. Because there weren’t very many natural subjects close by to use as silhouettes, we just used ourselves.
On the same day we visited the farm, we visited Lac Stukley. All the lakes around here are solid white masses but at least shadows lay long and uninterrupted. The wind was blowing the millimeter of freshly fallen snow from the previous night and I think that also added interest to the snow-covered landscape.
The sunset was perfect one evening. There weren’t very many places to shoot along the built-up Lac Orford, but this lone birch was all I needed for a simple, much-needed foreground subject.
I was experimenting with the composition technique of “two-point perspective” here. The corner post aligned with the corner of the church gives a very strong center alignment that make for a symetrical composition and evokes a sense of rest and dignity. For more on the fascinating subject of what types of compositions evoke what types of emotions, read Symmetrical Composition by Canadian photographer Paul Burgess.
Oorah!
The lone birch tree provides foreground material without taking all the attention away from that perfectly-graduated sky. In other words it’s an artful way of showing that skies aren’t just for background.