Clouds over Topa Topa
The Topa Topa Mountains rise above the Ojai valley in Southern California. The name Topa Topa comes from the Chumash Indian word for village.
This image attempts to cover a broad vista. The photographer has made the low hanging sky the primary subject in this scene. I like the low horizon and the feeling of a storm about to pass over the landscape.
The human eye and brain work in combination to take in majestic scenes. These are difficult to capture on a two dimensional element such as a photograph. One way of achieving this is by having a reference point in the foreground to give the scene scale and proportion. Think of some of the photographs you have seen of the Grand Canyon. The good ones have something in the foreground such as the near rim of the canyon to give them scale. The average ones try to capture a wide expansive view but fail because they have no foreground anchor.
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March 17th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I saw Topa Topa with snow on top, and storm clouds nearby. I drove out Telegraph Road east from Ventura until I found a break in the landscape where I could see the mountain and the clouds & took this picture.