let there be light

When I traveled in Victoria's High Country during one autumn, I was finally going to have a chance to capture 'mountain light'. In the mountains, the atmosphere is different. There is haze & mist, casting colours & softness in light rays. Peaks are illuminated by the setting & rising sun, while deep shadows are cast in valleys.

overlooking

One of the scenes that always stays vivid in my memory is the misty view of Taunggyi City from a nearby hill. The capital of Shan State in Myanmar stands on top of a hill on Shan Plateau, being true to the literal meaning of its name--big mountain. For one traveling on road from the central plains of Myanmar, one has to first ascend Shan Plateau. A couple of hundred kms in on the Plateau, crossing undulating hills, one will get to the 'base' of Taunggyi, from where one follows a winding road to get atop, only to be ushered in at the windings' end by this enchanting little hill-top city.

the rendezvous

Balance matters. Even in photos. It is as if the subjects (those that are not part of the background) in a photo weighed proportionally to their apparent sizes. When we look at a photo, we hold it up in our mind and hang from the middle of the upper edge to see if the picture would tilt to either side, depending on the 'weights' of the subjects in it. Our intuition as regards things placed on a see-saw, further dictates that the further a subject is from the centre of the frame, the heavier it affects on the frame. If different-sized subjects are placed at appropriate spots, it is possible that the picture would not tilt to either side. By then, we would find ourselves looking at a well-balanced photo.