Light and dark, good and evil, clear skies and wicked storms.

Last Wednesday afternoon I was anxious. I was going to have surgery the next morning. On the surface, my brain knew this was the right thing to do. Underneath the logic I was nervous. Going under the knife for the fifth time to fix a broken leg seemed nuts. 

While I was on the deck of my apartment in Boston I could see some small but intense storms brewing on the horizon. 

Storms that were going to move in fast, do their thing and be gone in a flash. 

This is the perfect environment to capture contrast. 

The sweeping frame of a city. A swirl of black clouds with a clear blue sky behind the entire scene.

I moved quickly to set up gear and get the cameras rolling for time-lapse capture.

I also captured some frames with my smartphone.

The photo below I captured with my DSLR. I had huge engagement and reach on that photo.

While there can be a bunch of reasons for the high visibility on my instagram, I believe one reason is that there is a ton of contrast in the photo. Not just light and dark, but dark storm and clear sky. To boot, a contrast of colors between the blue in the sky and the sweep of yellows on the horizon.

Keep in mind the eye goes to the area of highest contrast first. When framing your image, place the area of highest contrast in the spot that will deliver maximum impact. Time your tap of the shutter so that you are capturing the moment of highest impact between light and dark.

More about this and other photo techniques in my ebook, How to Take Badass Mobile Photos.