Artistic Compositions in Nature

Article and Images by Les Burge

[Return to Index]

Nature photographers have all spent countless hours chasing the images that personal vision allows them to see. A moment in time captured in the life of our passion that we know as art. Occasionally we are welcomed in to a natural event or phenomenon that brings out that which we recognize as artistic pose, composition,or behavior. Being there at the moment is essential, obviously. Having the patience, the will, and the vision to see, are more of the essence!

Birds pose particularly difficult challenges because they rarely allow us to see them except in fleeting glances. If we do our homework, and study our subject so we know what to expect, the rewards are phenomenal. All the large wading birds present themselves in great formal postures that can be transferred to the images we see. They are plentiful here in Florida, where I now live, and so many other places. Originally from Connecticut, I have many photographs of the large birds from there, like great blue herons in the snow in the winter, great egrets in the fall along the Long Island Sound shoreline, and snowy egrets in the spring, having flown there from the warm south. Without a doubt they are easy subjects to place in different positions of a composition with time and patience.

Waterfowl, ducks and geese galore are accessible to all and can be captured in the best compositions considered by most to be art. Many a wood carved duck has shown the way for photographers to compose artistically—and vice versa. Artists often use photographs. Shorebirds are also the type of subjects available to show artfully within an image.

What is extremely challenging is to capture small birds that can be viewed as the beauty of the species in art. Passerines and warblers are the difficult ones in natural settings. Birdfeeders can yield great photos but, making images of birds in the wild and seeing those images published or framed in an art exhibit is much, much more exhilarating for me. Even more appreciated when we know that unlike flowers and landscapes, birds don’t stay still, therefore, patience and sacrifice are the order of the day.

Flowers in art had been coveted long before the first image was captured in a photograph. What the old masters painted was their interpretation of what they saw as artistic and beautiful. Botanical wonders are endless in the natural world. The variety of plants and their endless colors create possibilities to paint with light that all photographers and artists can enjoy and render in their medium.

In this digital explosion we find ourselves in, it is said by some that the composition of an image is sometimes lost to the computer. is it? Digital imagery has opened tremendous new possibilities of artistic expression of our natural world.

Personally speaking, I’m a shooter. I prefer to be out there with all the various technical paraphernalia pursuing the artful expression of nature in color, light, pattern, repetition, sequence, expanse, behavior, change, etc. I hope you enjoy what I’ve seen with my eyes and have had the good fortune to capture as art.

[Return to Index]

For additional articles that will help your photographic growth, why not go directly to our subscriptions page?