Leading lines

Fernworthy, Dartmoor

Often big open moorland vistas can look good to the eye especially if covered in purple heather as is so common during August.  But translating it to something that works in a two dimensional format, a photograph, can be hard.  

The human brain tends to ignore things that aren’t interesting and zoom into things it does find interesting.  Presented with the vista of a wide open moorland your appreciation of scale and depth are lost; your attention is attracted to features that stand-out or are different, not the rolling hillside of heather that all looks the same!  For example, look across a Dartmoor vista and I can bet your attention would be drawn to that distant rocky tor and not nearly so much to the straw and grass covered landscape that occupies the majority of the scene. 😉

So, this is were tricks such as leading lines can be really important.  Take the photograph above; it consists of some frosty grass, a dark stone wall and some colourful sky.  Sound interesting?  Sounds dull to me :-).  Yet its an interesting photograph!  Its a big open moorland, BUT that wall grabs the attention, its a leading line, and the eye follows it back into the picture giving a sense of depth and scale.  Of course, its helped hugely by the lovely warm colours in the sky that catch the eye as its travelling along the wall and because of the contrast between the warm sky and the cold, frosty dark ground.