The Beauty and Simplicity of Spring Trees

Trees can be so difficult and challenging to photograph, or at least photograph successfully. Usually this means creating a composition that gives the viewer a path through the image, and this path helps you share and convey what you found interesting. Every image should have a subject that is well-defined, and sometimes a story that goes with the subject. The subject for me in  this series of images is color, and specifically green. Take the green away, and my compositions fall apart. The strong lines and patterns of the trees may help, but they are there for just that reason, to help the main character – green.

Simplifying images in this fashion is something I think is extremely valuable to making successful images. You should always be looking to simplify your images, especially forest scenes like these. Without that attention to what is the main subject, and always thinking about simple design elements like lines, these types of images can easily become chaotic and complicated. I know because it happens to me often.

Think about what you are trying to convey, and say it as simply as possible. That doesn’t mean the image has to be minimal however. Minimal is not the same as simple, so don’t confuse these concepts. Be as complicated as you like, just make sure your message is easy to understand and conveys your ideas as simply as possible. If you can’t describe your images in one sentence. then it needs to be simpler.