Creativity Prompt: Foreground, Middle, Background

slowing down to see layers of beautiful

My obsession with light and photography — which dates back to early childhood — kicked into ultra high gear when I moved to the mountains after architecture school. I loved the light-chase enough to rise early before work (certified night owl here) and long after I’d left the office for the day I could be found winding through the mountains with my Minolta X-700 and several rolls of 36 exposure Kodak Gold and TMax film in a variety of ISOs.

Maroon Wilderness, iPhone photo by J.Koskinen

I was dating a working artist in those days and one afternoon, as I shared a pile of prints I’d just picked up from the camera shop, he noted something he saw in my photos that became one of my favorite compositional tips,

“I love how you ground the viewer in your photos by using foreground, middle ground and background to create layers of visual interest.”

It’s something I was doing subconsciously, but has since become something I look for whenever I’m composing a photo.

using wildflowers as foreground elements in scenes around Denver, iphone photos by J.Koskinen

An interesting foreground in a wider landscape can serve as an entry point for the eye. It invites the viewer into the photo at the frame where they can linger on close-up details and then move to discover more as the eye roams to the more distant vanishing points of a composition.

finding landscape elements in, or in front of water can turn water into a framed middle-ground subject in a mountain landscape (iPhone photos by J.Koskinen)

Conversely, an interesting foreground can be the focal point of a photo (see below), and the background can be framed to complement, resonate or amplify the palette, context or story. Layers can work together to highlight the subject with a sunburst, backlight, or by using contrasting cooler tones in the background.

Any of these photos could have just been the flower or leaf or tree — but each composition is made stronger for the layers included (iPhone photos by J.Koskinen)

Speaking of cooler and warmer tones, I’ll be talking about these more in a future post. I’ve been having fun exploring color lately in other media and I’m excited to share observations.

As with all of my creative prompts, the point is to slow down and look for layers of beauty, whether you’re out in the wilderness or in the city (I always try to include both perspectives in these posts). Which brings me back to why Good Footprints exists…because I will always believe that,

Finding beauty is its own form of activism. Slow-looking over time will inevitably activate curiosity, deepen empathy and hopefully — inspire action…

(… in case the extreme weather of the past few weeks hasn’t already triggered a personal interest in doing more to curb your fossil fuel use).

Layers adding interest to urban landscapes (iPhone photos by J.Koskinen)

Now it’s your turn:

Your good-foot-prompt, should you choose to accept it, is to head out and find those gorgeous, interesting, storytelling foreground / middle / background compositions. Once you look you’ll find them everywhere.

Until next time, keep leaving those good footprints, my friends!