Cropping - 1 Photo, 3 Different Looks (Sunrise - Folly Beach Pier, Charleston, SC)

One of my favorite tools as a photographer is the cropping tool. This allows me to be creative in many different ways and, it allows me the opportunity to rethink images after I am back in the studio and can really see what I have captured. Here is a case in point.

Recently, I was retained to photograph two houses on the exclusive Seabrook Island as well as an oceanfront penthouse condo on Folly Beach near Charleston, SC. The morning of my departure I was up at sunrise and captured this image of the pier at Folly Beach:

Now, there really isn't anything wrong with this photograph, but when I was looking at it in post production, the shadow of the bird on the sand caught my eye. The triangle of the pier pavillion, the rising sun and the bird on the sand all seemed to be screaming as a focal point. So I decided to play around with my cropping tool and see what else I could come up with. At first, I loved the glistening of the dawn light off the sand and thought a beach-dominated crop might look nice. So I experimented a little and came up with this:

Interesting! I loved the long light along the beach which conveyed a serene walk to the water's edge. I also loved the long shadow of the bird as well. Not to be satified, I thought, why not allow the colors of the morning sky dominate a little more and see what happens. And this was the result of that theory:

Wow! A totally different feeling in my mind. This image really conveys the dawn of a new day, and the optimism which it brings. I love the transition of the colors in the sky, as well as the silouette of the bird.

One photograph, yet three (or more!) really unique differences. So, let your cropping tool unlock some of your photographs BEST!

Greensboro Photographer | Andrew Jay Mayon | Triad Real Estate Photography

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