Man with a plan
When Gert Greeff from Melkbosstrand saw the beautiful morning unfolding in front of him he didn’t have his camera with him and he had to think on his feet. “We decided to tour along the West Coast, leaving from Pella in the Northern Cape. We camped next to the Orange River. As is my wont, I got up early and saw that the sun was rising. I didn’t have my camera with me – and there also wasn’t time to go fetch it because that golden moment before it’s light passes quickly. That’s why I decided to use my smartphone to capture the moment.” This is typical Northern Cape: A landscape littered with wide, open plains. Gert’s photo with the reflection on the water is the embodiment of those open spaces. The photo has very little detail, but it still draws your attention. That’s mostly to do with the composition, but without you realising it the portrait orientation plays a significant role. This orientation is less common because you’re more inclined to take photos in landscape and we’re also used to the flatness of TV and computer screens. You’re basically looking through a landscape “lens” at the world and it’s because of this that a portrait image draws your eye, especially if you use the mode cleverly. Also, the content of the photo feels timeless. The detail doesn’t even take up a quarter of the photo but what there is – the hills, the ripples on the water, and, if you look closely, the grass that sticks out of the water, is enough to make you feel like you’re there in the moment. Even though you instinctively look at the lightest part of the photo first it’s not long before you look down and absorb the photo from the bottom of the dark water to the top over the horizon – and end at the dark sky. Total tranquillity.