The color in this image—as in all of
Gore’s work—is vivid, beautiful and
specific. For some photographers who
amplify color but lack his skill, their
imagery can become candy-like, overtly
artificial. Gore, however, strikes a balance
between intensity and naturalism. While
the colors are bold, they never overpower
the structure of the scene. It’s a remarkable
talent and something he happily shares
with other photographers who want to
ensure they don’t overprocess their images
and get the colors all wrong.
“When I’m out shooting,” Gore says,
“I’m really not actively searching for
a shot where all the colors are in har-
mony because I know that for the most
part that if some color does not exactly
comply with a harmony, I can tweak it in
post processing to bring it more in line.
And when I say ‘tweak,’ I’m really only
talking about making minor shifts in the
color, not completely spinning the hue on
it to make it another color. That kind of
thing really doesn’t work for landscape
photography because of something I call
the ‘context of nature.’ Simply put, skies
are blue, grass is green, etcetera. If I take
some grass and make it cyan because it
works better in a harmony, a viewer will
ultimately reject that photo because it
isn’t what they are expecting grass to
look like, and the question of why the
grass is cyan will take precedence over
how nice the image looks.”
“It really comes down to doing some-
thing such as shifting the green of the
grass to a more yellow-green,” he con-
tinues, “a green-green or perhaps a more
blue-green if one of those works better
in particular. I’ve always found it hard
to give other people practical advice on
color theory that they can apply because
it’s such a nuanced and subtle thing. But
if I were to point out something that I
think many photographers ‘get wrong,’
it’s to stop making skies Barney purple!
It’s always bugged me because in terms
of ‘context of nature,’ I’ve never seen a
sky look like that.
“Really though,” Gore concludes, “Do
what you want. It’s art!” OP
See more of Ted Gore’s work at
tedgorecreative.com.
Left: Saline Split. Heavy winter rains followed by long, hot and dry summers
create these impressive mud crack patterns in a remote area of Death Valley
National Park. Some of these areas can have cracks that are a foot deep! It’s an
amazing display of nature in one of the harshest environments in the world. On
this morning, the clouds broke in such a way as to send this strip of light across
the adjacent mountain, making for a perfect background.Right: Naupakas Journey. An 11-mile, cliff-hugging hike along one of the most
stunning stretches of coastline is the one of two ways to (legally) access this area
known as Kalalu Beach, the other being by kayak. I ventured out to this beach
with a backpack full of gear for a two-night stay in hopes of finding some way of
capturing this amazing location. The Hawaiian Islands are covered in the plant
that’s featured in the foreground, beach naupaka, which carries a legend behind
it of lovers separated by class and forbidden to be married, as represented by the
half flowers.outdoorphotographer.com December 2019 45