by Wilkerson, Angilee

Nothing says open space quite like a landscape defined by little more than big sky and continuous ground. In this image, stratified layers of color transition through various shades of green, yellow and blue, delineating a compositional plane and horizon.  We find a soothing calm in the rendering of earth and sky in minimal content and form, which is interrupted dramatically, however, by the comet-like trail of the cloud. 

Notice how the cloud pierces the sky from the right side of the image. It, too, is linear and parallel to the horizon, but unlike the confluent fields of color it interrupts, the cloud’s shock of white vapor is not carried across the entire photo, its terminal point being very clearly defined at center-frame. This difference suggests dynamic movement against a background of stillness across the composition’s painterly landscape.

Notice how the white flowers in the lower part of the image are crisp, while the defining line of the horizon is nevertheless distinct. 

In Simple Mode, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 chose a depth of field that allowed sharpness from foreground to background.