When traveling on the road I often get up wherever we are and take a walk in the early morning light. I usually take my camera with me. Today, we were camped along part of the Yellowstone river (but not in Yellowstone NP). As I anticipated the night before, the sun was rising behind us so most of the area was in shade. What I did see was a lot of river rock. I decided to challenge myself  and see what images I could create using this river rock.

 In some respects this can be like calisthenics for photographers . Here are some of the images I came up with.

The opening blog image used a variable ND filter to take a 3 sec exposure of the waves off the river rippling over the rocks. I found that longer exposures smoothed the water out too much and you would loose the wonderful painterly texture.

This next image is a straight shot looking for a nice composition amongst all the chaos. The grouping of three rocks attracted my attention.

Here is this next image that I converted to B&W in Lightroom, a single larger rock stands out. I placed it tight in the corner to create a sense of loneliness even though it was surrounded by other rocks – a conceptual image.

Below I applied a technique I usually save for flowers. This is an off axis 9 shot exposure while zooming and rotating the camera. It does create an interesting image when applied to rocks.

A rusty old wheel well provided this next abstract image.

Using the variable ND I shot 15 sec exposures as the morning sunlight started hitting some of the rocks. The challenge here was to find pleasing compositions in the rocks. 

A piece of rusty metal place within the rocks creates yet another abstract image.

Try challenging yourself. Start with a “non-photogenic” setting and see what you can create – use your imagination, try things you never have before.