
The most basic of design elements in composition is the line. You don’t need to study art to know about lines; presented with paper and crayon a toddler instinctively draws lines. There are many variations of lines: straight, curved, jagged, short, long, thick, thin, horizontal, vertical. All are simple constructs which can be used for many artistic purposes. But I believe the most elegant in its simplicity and power are curves.
Lines in general, and curves in particular, lead our eyes in a composition. They strongly affect the movement of the viewer’s eyes through a photograph. In one of Ansel Adams’ iconic landscapes, The Tetons and the Snake River, he used the S-curve of the river and light to draw in the eyes of the viewer. He knew the longer you had the viewer’s attention the more his art could be understood and appreciated. By leading our eyes to a vanishing point, curves can also be used to indicate distance, convey depth and bring a third dimension to our two-dimensional compositions.
While nature presents us with an endless variety of curves in landscapes, I am particularly fond of using man-made curves like winding roads. Our eyes naturally follow them as they take us on a journey through the landscape. This curvy section of the Denali National Park road is around mile fifteen near the Savage River valley.
Autumn colors on the tundra in the park are a visual feast for the eyes. Timing the peak colors can be tricky, but they usually arrive in late August, early September. This year a brilliant blue sky dotted with clouds coincided with the peak. Travel along the park road was mesmerizing as it weaved through vast carpets of brilliant reds of blueberry, bearberry and resin birch interspersed with the yellows of aspen and cottonwood trees. All off this was set against a backdrop of the Alaska Range. The aperture was set to f/16 to create the starburst effect for added visual impact.