The Photographer's Eye: Graphic Guide

NEAR-FAR

Ansel Adams invented the term near-far, and the idea is to include a very close foreground subject and another subject in the background, both impeccably sharp, and to show some meaningful relationship between them. He used it in his landscapes, and he was meticulous. Just slapping a rock in the foreground and a mountain behind doesn’t do it. They need to compare in some way, either graphically or in meaning, or both. It’s a wide-angle effect, naturally, which means that tiny adjustments to the camera position make a big difference. This is cormorant fishing on a lake in Yunnan, China, and I like this shot because first, it’s the closest I’ve ever been able to get to a cormorant (inches), and second, you can see almost the entire process ...