I’ve been finishing up some of the photos from our first trip this year, the one to Captiva and Sanibel Islands, Florida. These are a few more from the mangrove swamp at Ding Darling NWR. Not all of these are of mangroves per se, but you get the idea.
I felt like these needed to be in black & white. Partly because of the weird color of the water due to the brackishness (is that a word?) of the marshland water but also because of the patterns themselves.
I often find mangroves to be difficult to compose partly because they are so random and messy, forcing the eye to just wander aimlessly. Using the reflection in the water is a good idea because it does soften the “messiness” by bringing in symmetry which gives a nice line along which the eyes can return to. Nice work Tom.
I had to work for a composition that felt right to me, and in this case using the reflections worked. Probably because I was looking in from outside rather than being in the middle. Not having any foreground clutter made the difference, I think.
Chaos is the first thing that comes to mind within nature. Man wants to have order but not true of nature. Or maybe chaos is the order.
It is not always apparent, but I believe there is order within the chaos of nature.