The Curves of Agave The leaves of agave, and the century plant, as some of the agave species are called, have always fascinated me. The regular arrangement of so many leaves providing an endless number of photographs. Even tiny changes in the camera position can result in completely different photographs. One can get close or step back, us a long or short focal length, shoot from above, horizontally, or even looking up. There are just so many ways to get the leaves arranged in the frame.

On this particular occasion, the curves of the leaves were just part of what caught my eye, The plant was brightly lit from the side and the leaves cast beautiful shadows on the plant, resulting in a high contrast scene with some parts flooded with light and others in almost full darkness. A double win for my eyes, the fine curves combined with the exquisite light.

This photo also reminds me of the book I'm reading now, Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal style by Alain Briot. In all honesty, the first two chapters did not excite me at all and I started having doubts about the whole book. The author tried to justify the existence of photographers, and how little they are appreciated for their skills and art as opposed to just owning fancy camera equipment. While all true I was not sure about the value, especially since the book is for photographers who most likely already know all of that anyway.

Chapter 3 fell short of my expectations too. With Section B / Chapter 4, Composing with Light, it's finally getting more exciting and I am getting sucked back into the book to read more. I think there is a very good chance now that I will finish the book and will be able to share what value I end up getting out of this one. Anyway,this long chapter does explore the various qualities of light and does discuss chiaroscuro too. That's how my original The Curves of Agave became The Agave Chiaroscuro for this blog post.

Have fun exploring light, it's not just about the sunrises and sunsets!