Crop Corner

The word composition is used in art, music, and writing to convey the fusion of separate elements to form a whole. A music composition is the sum of all of its individual notes. A written composition is the sum of all of its words. Likewise, a photographic composition is the sum of all of its graphical elements: the main subject, the foreground, the background, and any supplemental subjects within the frame. When most of us "ooh and ahh" over a picture, it's usually the composition that has captivated us. It's not just the content of the picture that we respond to, but rather the way a photographer has created something greater than its parts. For example, compare these two pictures of the Snake River leading up to the Teton Mountains.