elements of composition

i started STILL to challenge myself to get better at composition. and is so often the case in life, i learned so much more than i would have ever imagined, but not so much about composition. i learned a tremendous amount about the flora and fauna of my special places (minnesota and southern france) which turned into a love of place i had never experinced before. i learned about how the daily habit of paying attention can become a spiritual form of daily devotion. i learned how doing even a little bit every day builds and builds into an impressive body of work surprisingly quickly–a term i call radical incrementalism. and i learned that creative expression can come in small increments, and is not limited to the grand gestures we often associate with creativity. but when it comes to composition…well, truth be told, i still feel like a beginner almost every day. i have resigned myself to the fact that i will never master composition. at last not in the way i thought i would. but what i can say, is that i did get more comfortable with simply deciding “yeah, i like that, that feels good to me. that feels done enough”.  this simple composition of beach rocks is a perfect example of that. i deliberated about that black rock–does it add or detract? yes? no? yes? no? the answer wasn’t clear. but in the end i liked it this way. and that is good enough.

beach rocks (lake superior and mediterranean)