Beyond "This is what it looks like."

Concrete Bridge, Haywood County, NC  -  2014

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Unless you are just taking some casual family snapshots, you should ask yourself some questions before pushing that button. What is my subject? What is it about my subject that I think is worth sharing with my viewers? What is the best way to emphasize that quality about my subject (whatever it is) to my viewers? Answering those questions first may save the viewers of your photos from having to ask some questions of their own, like, "What the #*@% is that, and why did he take a picture of it?"

On the Flat Laurel Creek trail there is a concrete bridge over a cascade. I guess the trail was formerly a logging road because a concrete bridge seem so incongruous on a hiking trail. Usually, hiking trails have bridges made out of wood planks at best, or maybe just a big log spanning the creek. I'd seen pictures of this bridge on some hiking websites, but they were just "this is what it looks like" kind of photos. I wanted to show my viewers how out of place a concrete bride seems in a wilderness setting. That meant climbing down below the bridge for a different perspective, and a little finagling in post-processing. Did I succeed in adequately sharing what impressed me about this bridge? Only the viewer can answer that question.