YOUR PHOTO
Your smartphone isn’t just for chatting, sending messages on Whatsapp, and playing Candy Crush. These three readers also took exceptional photos with theirs.
Rules are meant to be broken The Kruger National Park isn’t just for spotting wildlife. Just ask Corrie Calitz from Ballito, who snapped this incredible picture while he and his wife were enjoying sundowners. “I took this picture at the Sunset Dam near Lower Sabie in the Kruger. It was dead quiet, with no wind. My wife Cornelia and I decided to end the day with a sundowner when a yellow-billed stork calmly walked past to the water looking for food. I took the picture in black and white to highlight the contrast between the clouds and the bird. I also tried to capture the reflection of the tree with the nests in it.” A good photo consists mostly of simple elements and also has a specific focal point. Corrie succeeds in the first regard, but his photo has two focal points: the stork and the tree. It’s a case of breaking the rules. Even though your eye moves from the one to the other, there is nothing else that draws your attention away from the two objects. In fact, while the tree is simply a silhouette, you can see the detail around the stork. Therefore your eye lingers a bit longer here while you see the bird’s open beak – and its reflection – in the water. Corrie breaks another rule and that is to place the horizon exactly in the middle of the photo. Moreover, the tree stands like an anchor right in the middle of the photo (and the horizon), but the clever placement of the bird in the frame disrupts these balancing elements, which changes it into good composition. None of these elements can make a good photo if there aren’t also wide-open spaces – on this photo the sky and the dam. These spaces, so-called negative space – balance 100% with the bird and the tree. Great shot!