• B I G • S U R • It’s amazing when you start considering how things ought to look, how to view the world, where the best light is, where to stand, the perfect angle, it’s also a decidedly frustrating pursuit. Composition is fascinating and a deep rich subject, permeating all art history. I love listening to photographers and, hell, all varieties of artists, any compositional aces discussing the form. It makes you appreciate nuances of the great painters, what makes an iconic painting so. There’s also this abundant vein of inspiration in the photographic library of the American southwest where incredible photographers, compositional mavens like Sam Abell and Albert Allard, dudes with film cameras, tactfully chase the light in an era where ISO meant two options, 50 or 100, and images had to basically be within a quarter-stop to get a useable exposure. Now we have so much flexibility. It’s truly an era of new photography. And when it all aligns and the composition emerges in the right lighting with an interesting subject, where it all comes together—you feel better just for finding the moment. Learn to dream with your eyes open, a Nat Geo photographer once told me. Sounds like hippy bullshit, but it’s more to the point on learning how to see compositions and telling visual stories. Photographers often talk about learning to see, a subject that’s funny for me, as I’m legally blind. That’s another story. I read extensively on the subject of composition these days. Song of the Day: RAC & Katie Herzig “We Belong”