Cropping Vacation Photos

Cropping Vacation Photos

The Lone Cypress on 17 Mile Drive, Monterey, CA

This picture was taken from one of the lookout points along 17 Mile Drive in Monterey, CA. It is the iconic "Lone Cypress" which has been well documented through the years and is known around the world. 

It was a typical tourist-laden scene. The limited parking spaces were filled and cars lined up to wait for their turn. When we finally got a spot we hopped out and waited for other photographers to finish family photos before posing for our own. This is the "just one more" photo to document what we'd seen. It takes in the whole view.

Imagine this scene photographed in another moment: perhaps early morning, or in the golden glow at dusk, or at twilight as stars begin to appear, perhaps in the rain, or mist. Maybe there's something going on in the distance, ... the possibilities for capturing something special with a photograph are infinite.

Now what if you wanted to elevate this snap shot to a piece of photography that makes a statement? 

In this day and age there are tons of editing tools you can use to alter your digital images. You can also edit the old-fashioned way- trimming a print to your specifications. But it would help to have a vision of what you want to convey with the finished piece.

For instance, cropping out a majority of the foreground, and including a vast amount of the sky, reinforces the sentiment behind the tree's name: "Lone Cypress", - a solitary tree out on an island, surrounded by big expanses of sea and sky: 

Pulling in the horizontal edges focuses on the tree and the island, perhaps conveying a sense of strength in facing the world and the elements which threaten it:

Coming in closer and centering the tree in the middle third of the composition makes the subject the tree itself; it's shape, color, and fragility, solidly planted within the textures of its home:

While including more of the greenery from the main land, ties it to the other cypresses, or even suggests a pull toward solid ground. The island and the main land are now connected in a silhouette against the ocean and sky:

These are all the exact same picture, but they each have their own "feeling" and make a different statement. This is what sets them apart from the last minute snap shot taken before moving on to the next point of interest.

Editing vacation photos is a creative process in itself. Experiment. Enjoy!