Jungle Emergence

Thirteen years ago, when I started this blog, I would have never thought to take a photo like the one below.  My early photography years were filled with capturing everything in wide angle, getting expansive views well beyond what I was used to capturing on limited point-and-shoot cameras and early smart phones. The way wide angle photos can easily envelope viewers into the scene was really appealing, and my practice with landscape photos create pretty but often static compositions.

It wasn't until years later that I learned the value of framing at a longer focal length, using a wide aperture to focus on a subject and craft layers of foreground midground, and background to enhance the depth and interest of a composition.  Here, a couple of posts at the Jungle Cruise dock literally frame the view, and the tiki torches out of focus in the foreground help the viewer hone in on the Jungle Cruise boat.  Placing the focus on the background instead of the foreground is a deliberate and not as common move as well, giving the photos an even more zoomed-in feel.  

A wide angle version of this view would have been fine, but there would have been so much water and foliage that nothing would have really stood out as a subject.  This version focuses on the subject and creates that much more interest because of it.

A Jungle Cruise boat comes out from the tropical wilderness and returns to civilization!