Distilling Detail out of Visual Chaos

When I arrived at Yosemite, I immediately took a drive to explore potential sites to photograph. I was overwhelmed with the beauty and anticipation of the vast photographic possibilities. It was seemingly impossible to take it all in. In fact I had to make myself slow down to really begin to see and think creatively. At first I intentionally avoided my camera to force myself to become accquainted with the surroundings and to let my creative eye analyze the possibilities... not just the vistas but the intimate details.

I often make a conscious effort to clear my mind to be receptive to seeing things in a way best suitable for photographic expression.  I then focus on use of the rectangular frame of the camera's viewfinder and other tools and techniques to assist in creating some order out of the chaotic abundance of visual stimuli in the surroundings. Elliot Porter, an early photographic icon in color photography, in his photographic work "Nature's Chaos", makes reference to irregular order created out of pure disorder. This is clearly the case and it certainly takes effort and practice to begin to see in a way to allowing the visualization necessary to capture the intimate details within larger chaotic elements in nature.