Sitting on the Rocks

The way this woman is sitting on the rocks makes her appear like a siren. The mountains on the background are hardly visible through the haze

Sitting on the Rocks
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The way this woman is sitting on the rocks, makes her appear like a siren. The mountains on the background are hardly visible through the haze and dust.

The way one can change the perception of a scene, through clever composition tricks, is amazing. Even though I know this place very well, I can’t help but imagine the woman sitting on a solitary rock that is emerging from the sea. Of course, the reality is very different. There are many rocks that cut through the sea in the area. In the morning, it is a favourite spot for fishermen. In the afternoon, it is full of people who just want to escape from the cities nearby.

One such afternoon, I made this photo. The haze in the background is sand and dust from Africa, carried by the south winds. Because of that, both the lighting and the visibility were not ideal. Still, the quest for a nice photo never stops! Amongst the people who were visiting the place were a few couples; and couples take photos. At some point, I noticed this girl sitting on the rocks and posing for her boyfriend.

I could imagine her like a siren waiting for a ship to pass. In order to accomplish that, I decided to include in the frame only the part of the rock she was sitting on. The empty sea intensifies the feeling of isolation from the land, which makes the image more striking. The haze from the dust serves the same purpose. It masks the background and makes it irrelevant. Since the eye doesn’t have anything else to cling to, it naturally returns to the woman. She is the focal point of the photo anyway. Still, I didn’t have to close the frame closer to her because it is the scene that is important, not the person.

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