Visualize

Photo quote for today: "You don't take a photograph, you make it" - Ansel Adams

The one thing that trumps everything when it comes to making that great image is your ability to visualize the finished image. There is nothing new about this concept, the most well known photographer of our time, Ansel Adams, was unquestionably the master of visualization. Now that we've arrived into the digital age we have within our reach the ability to control every aspect of image creation. So the next time you come across your next jaw dropping subject take a moment to pause and visualize the final result.

In my series below on the lifeguard stations of Siesta Key, my visualization was that of a very simple composition. I wanted the stations to pop out, complemented by an interesting sky. Because I now live in a region known as the Sun Coast it took several weeks of weather watching, and numerous trips to the beach, to capture the raw images. I've purposely included the original image of the blue station as a before an after comparison of what I visualized in the final image.