August 2010 "Photo of the Month"

This image of local fisherman was taken from my boat at the mouth of the Beaufort River in Port Royal Sound.  It is the featured photograph for August in my 2010 Lowcountry Calendar and you can view it and all of my picture galleries at www.southernlight.biz. On this morning, I headed out on a rising tide from the boat landing at Sands Beach.  My plans were to visit some favorite riverbanks to photograph the feeding action of Black Skimmers and other shorebirds.  I started to take notice of the sky - huge thunderheads, lots of white puffy clouds and an unseasonable clarity in the atmosphere. In the midst of our steamy hot summer, days like these are heaven sent for land and seascapes and remaining flexible pays in outdoor photography.  My focus changed from hungry birds to wide-open vistas and marsh scenes.  Not entirely, but let’s say that I began my search for interesting foregrounds to work with this glorious sky.  The fisherman caught my eye and worked well with my cumulus cloud backdrop from a distance and only improved as I made my approach. 

Photo tip:  I like to build my seascapes and landscapes with subject matter that is not only interesting but will also provide interesting compositions.  One way I do this is by drawing the viewer’s eye from near to far – or the reverse. In this shot, I found the background first. Honestly, it hit me over the head.  Once I spotted the fisherman, I knew I had both foreground and background. If the fisherman had not turned up, I would have continued looking for something else…shrimp boats, a sailboat, an oyster bank or Spartina grasses. Finding subject matter in the lowcountry is not a chore and I could have used almost anything with this sky.  Please visit us online for more information on my photo tours, products and to see more images. www.southernlight.biz.