Tony Kuyper Photography


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Blue Shadows
It took a few visits to this place for me to remember one of the most important aspects of slot canyon photography: forget about a leveled camera. The twists and turns in a sandstone slot canyon usually mean that the ability to compose images where the camera is perfectly vertical or horizontal is rare. However, the strong verticals in this structure seemed to demand careful attention of the camera's "proper" orientation to maintain the integrity of the scene. Wrong!
It was only while attempting to crop images in Photoshop that I realized that this structure could be just as abstract as sandstone. Abandoning orientation was key to unlocking the abstract character of the architect's design. As the cropping guides were spun in Photoshop, it was quite obvious that best compositional angles were not aligned with gravity. As with many situations, becoming less rigid frees the mind to see in new ways.