The golden hour is the best moment to truly capture the entire majesty of the sky and nature. I was humbled when I saw how incredibly powerful of an image nature could produce with the right setting and the proper timing.
The idea
As we were casually walking down to the Greek temples of Agrigento, the sky metamorphized into something breathing and living. We could not remain impervious to the sight the Earth was offering us. The instant I looked upon the clouds, it was clear to see the image it called down upon us.
The incredible shadow casted by the head of this horse looks as though it's splitting the sky in two by contrasting the orange and blue hues of the sun and the sky. The orange gradient is unimaginably smooth, starting from the bottom of the picture, where the sun is setting, to the top of the sky. The mere immensity of the figure is absolutely astonishing, as if it could crush us in an instant.
It's always quite a mesmerizing exercise to read messages left by nature. Although, I genuinely don't believe in such things, since that would mean nature envisions the world the same way we do, which would be a highly simplistic view of what nature is truly capable of, but the interpretation we give to the very random events surrounding us can be quite fascinating. Why does a cloud, condensed H2O molecules, make us think of a horse? Because of our ability to personify inanimate objects in order to reassure ourselves into thinking the world around us is not made up of a billion phenomenon and notions we cannot understand? It's reassuring to see that something you thought was inexplicable can be personified into something closer to your own experience.
The technique
The horizon, the colors and the partitioning of the photo into thirds were all essential to make the picture truly unique.
The first, and most important element to take into consideration here is that the photo merges three reading principles :
As mentioned, the two thirds rules; the photo is cut by the foreground at the bottom third of the image, creating space for the subject to be brought into frame with a nice balance of scenery and subject;
The central point of attention; having the subject straight in the middle of the frame. That isn't something you often want to do except when the subject is the only element of the photo, or, in this case, when the amount of information is too great for the observer to properly understand the composition without having an easy anchor point. Even when the composition is a bit more complex you can decide to have the subject be to the side or a bit hidden, but you always have to be careful to make sure the attention isn't drawn out of the main focal point towards the surrounding elements. The anchor point is the point in the image that the observer will first jump to, or, at the very least, will always go back to. The anchor point is what reassures the viewer and what helps them understand the principle point of focus. Anchor points can be played with and often are, for example in baroque paintings. The idea that your eye sets on one specific point can be the origin of a lot of play around the importance of the environment, which can then lead into a second reading of the painting or the picture, but only for those who are curious or tempted enough to read the whole composition;
The last principle is geometry: the triangle formed by the shadow. This adds a whole different reading to the composition, specifically because it stems from the subject. In this case, it centers the viewer back to the central idea and also brings in the notion that there might be more to see outside of the frame (due to the widening of the funnel-like shape towards the top).
When taking the photo, I deliberately darkened the overall to get a better contrast and to make sure I wasn't overblowing the image with the exposure. I didn't care for a readable foreground, what I wanted was the background to have plenty of contrasting colors.
In post, I obviously contrasted further, but in terms of color editing I had no need for retouching the photo any further than the little improvement I gave it. This, all due to the fact that the exposure of the sun already did so much to separate the blue and orange hues of the sky, that this contrast needn't be artificial. The foreground being so dark gives it an interesting separation between the lower third of the picture and the rest. It sets apart the sky from the ground completely.
It thinks what makes this unique is also the upward motion/gaze the horse has, following the direction of this funnel of shadow.
Tools
Camera: Canon 1300D
Lens: 18-55 mm
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