Photo of the Week: Jan. 20, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: One of the inherent dangers of being a photographer is that while driving, I often spend more time admiring the landscape than the road. This orchard caught my eye one day while driving up the road from Beit Shemesh to Gush Etzion and I tracked down the exact spot a few days later. The image evolved through several efforts to bring the three main elements - the grassy foreground, the pink blossoms, and the blue mountains and sky - into proper balance and perspective. Typically, my mobility was limited by the contours of the surrounding landscape. I wanted to maintain a slight elevation above the foreground to give the photo better depth, but there wasn't much room to maneuver without losing height. The best angle I could find still left the line of pink trees somewhat thinner and less dominant in the photo than what I could see as I walked around the orchard. In the end, the bold, complementary colors combine with the movement of the photo from lower right to upper left corner to pull the photo together into a successful composition.