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Looking at Colorado, Seeing Colorado

There is a huge difference between looking at a natural scene and seeing it. When we look at a scenic mountain meadow below a towering peak, our eyes take in different elements of the scene that attract us in different degrees - maybe the jagged mountain in the distance, or the color of the grass in the meadow. We might take a snapshot, and on our digital cameras, review it. The mountain is tiny and the meadow is a formless mass of green. In other words, the elements of the scene are not organized, the picture is a snapshot of what we were looking at. To see the scene, you must organize the mountain and the meadow - you must position yourself closer to the mountain, at a different angle, and make the distant meadow your foreground. To see, you are arranging the scene like an artist - in thirds - with a foreground at the bottom, below the middle, and finally, the background, the mountain. I always start looking for that background, and then I search for the foreground, such as flowers or Aspen leaves. I don't always find these elements, so I move on until I do. If I don't, my dog and I get a good walk in the beautiful state of Colorado.