October 24, 2013
Garry Oak, Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon, USA, and The One-Eye Test

There were still nice pockets of fall color in the Mt. Hood National Forest yesterday. This is a Garry Oak, also known as an Oregon White Oak or an Oregon Oak.

One-Eye Test

I've been using the One-Eye Test a lot while photographing the fall color recently. Ordinarily, we look as a scene with two eyes and therefore have stereo vision which gives us a sense of depth. Usually there's something about a scene, or a particular subject, that looks great to your eyes, but sometimes the same scene looks flat and uninteresting through your camera. When this happens, the scene falls apart without the depth provided by stereo vision. One way to save time is to look at a scene with just one eye, the one-eye test, to see of it's still interesting before even getting out your camera. If the scene passes the one-eye test, then it can also look good through your camera if you can make an interesting composition.