Anatomy of a Composition - Human Geography

In the Social Sciences, which have defined my teaching career, the term “Human Geography” is used to describe a wide array of data, information and attributes. On one hand hand it can be the cultural characteristics such as religion or language that we learn from one another and that might group or categories us, on the other hand human geography can relate to the imprint we’ve left on the land; the way me have shaped, modified, and otherwise used nature and the landscape around us to somehow improve our own living conditions. This image is an example of the latter, what is more narrowly described as “human/environment interaction.” This term its has many, many meanings, but for our purpose we’ll focus on the use of complex modeling of localized wind patterns, along with broad diagnostics that have tracked air-pressure maps, and ultimately the use of cartography and tying all of this together in a geo-spatial software to predict the most effective location to place these massive wind turbines on the plains of Colorado, east of Denver. Sure, you could just say, “look, those windmills on the hill!,” as we’ve been doing that forever. But today, we can better understand “the why” behind it all.

This composition is the result of 50 horizontal images shot, at 16mm. Images were edited in Lightroom, then stacked Starry Landscape Stacker, with final edits in Photoshop. The original file is 20MB, making it ideal for a large final piece to display on the wall, up to 30x40 inches.

Human Geography - Shot with a Sony a7III using the Sony FE 1635/F2.8 GM lens

EXIF data: 12800 | F/2.8 | 10 sec.

March, 2020 - As always, thank you for joining me on this adventure.

For more thoughts on some of these images, head over to www.wordpress.com/alma175w  

Wind Turbines & the Milky Way / March, 2020