Landscape photos are deceptively tricky to capture, or at last to capture well. Even photographers with other specialties sometimes fall into the trap of thinking it’s as easy as: show up, point the camera at pretty scene, capture great photo.
It’s a little amazing to me how bad a photo of a stunning scene can come out when you try that. Details are lost in the expanse, dynamic light goes flat, and the whole image feels oddly separate and removed from you, without the “in the moment” sense you felt while witnessing it.
Landscapes need an anchor point, something that feels physically near the viewer to help ground them in the scene. In this case, when I found this mossy downed tree alongside the creek, I knew it was my anchor. the moss provides some visual interest that feels close to the viewer, and the log provides a leading line that takes them deeper into the image – with bonus points for having an angle that parallels the creek itself.
All of which is to say that good photography is often a matter of pleasing geometries, arranged in a way that makes the viewer feel they are part of the scene, and not as if they are witnessing it printed flat on a wall.
The three images above are all variations on the theme, with differences in positioning and lens aperture (to control the depth of field, or how much of the image is in focus).