Exercise - Rhythms and patterns

1) Rhythms - to do with movement (of the eye) across a picture

• Repetition is a necessary ingredient but this alone does not guarantee a sense of rhythm.
• Repetition is a feature of the way the eye scans the picture as much as of the repetition.
• Rhythm produces considerable strength in an image. It has momentum and a sense of continuation. Once the eye has recoginzed the repetition, the viewer assumes that the repetition will continue beyond the frame.
  

I chose an image above to represent rhythm because the flowers are moving along with the wind blowing. When looking at the image, my eye is moving following the stem and along with the movement of the wind.

2) Pattern - static and to do with area


This image was taken at a market. This stall sell fruits and this basket full of orange makes it so "orange"!
I photoshop one of the orange to make it stand out and look more interrupted or breaking the pattern.

Exercise - Real and implied triangles

Triangles are not so difficult to find on a day to day life. They are the simplest and the most useful shape.
They are:
1) easy to construct
2) most basic of all geometric shapes having the least number of sides
3) being most dynamic due to diagonal and corners and stable provided that one side is a level base

Real:
a) a subject which is itself a triangle
The image below was taken from top of the train station which is a triangle in itself. It's part of the roof.


b) a triangle by perspective, converging towards the top of the frame
by tilting a camera up taking a photo of a building, it has created a triangle shape by perspective which can easily be done.


c) an inverted triangle by perspective converging towards the bottom of frame

This wasn't easy to start with. I was thinking of pointing the camera downward of a building (opposite of the converge triangle) but if I had to look downward of a building, it would have been quite scary!
Then I went walking around and suddenly look up the ceiling and found inverted triangle!!
This type of triangle, the reverse configuration, has different association: less stable, more aggressive, and contains more movement.

Implied:
this part of the exercise has been more difficult (to me!)
I google "still life" to see other people's works to give me some ideas what I could do with the stuff at home.

a) apex at the top
I have chosen 6 cups and stacked them all up with apex at the top.

I could have chosed 6 black cups with yellow background to creat colour contrast but unfortunately I only have 4 cups of black and 4 cups of white so to balance them, i have chosen 3 cups of each. Because the white cups are bigger, I placed them at the bottom.
I quite like the colour and the result.

b) apex at the bottom
the best way to take the invert triangle is to place a smallest item closer to the camera and place the rest behind. tilting the camera downward to see the small item being an apex at the bottom and the rest being the base at the top.

With the same background, I have chosen rednose comic relief smiley face, black cup and some pecks as my objects and arranged them as described above.

c) 3people making triagle

I can only do this exercise at work since I don't have enough people at home!
I asked three nice ladies to be my model. I did try a few posture and found this one the best in term of creating an implied triangle. The head of the lady standing in the back makes an apex of the triagle while the shoulders or heads of the two ladies sitting make the base of the triangle.

Exercise - Implied lines

This exercise is even more difficult that the last one, Curves.
Implied lines are only imagined lines which are used with some subtlety to direct the viewer's attention.

a) Eye-lines: If the person in the photograph is looking at something, our eyes naturally follow that direction.
b) the extension of visible movement: the eye tends to move ahead
c) a row of points: the eye also tends to move ahead
d) the extension of a line, or lines that seem to point in a cerain direction

First part:


The above 2 images show the extension of visible movement.
the first one, the bull is likely to go right hand side of the matadore, the eye has led ahead.
the second one, the horses are likely to left hand side of the cowboy while he's moving forward to stop them (?)

Second part:
1)Tube running
The tube is moving forward, the eye is moving ahead.


2) Bird running
Demoiselle Crane was running in curve. The eye is following its movement.


3) Tennis player serving
The tennis player is serving a ball. The eye is following the movement of her arm.


Third part:
Planning to take two photographs with implied lines isn't easy.

a) and eye-line
It's easy to use my husband as an object. I can either have him

• looking directly at camera which is the always the strongest attractant
  
• looking at something in the frame which will cause the eye to follow what he's looking at
  
• looking at something outside of the frame which will create some doubt in the viewer's mind of what he's looking at

I have chosen to take a photo of him looking elsewhere. The main reason is that I like the way he looks elsewhere and it will make me wondering when I look at the photo later on what he's looking at.


b) the extension of a line, or lines that point I think lines that point would be something that I would look into it and it would lead me to the object. I planned to take a photo of path, street or fence or something that it leads the eye into it.
Then I found a wooden path that leads the way into or outof the carousel

Exercise - Curves

This exercise, curve, has been the most difficult to do so far for me within the project "Line" It has been easier to see Vertical, Horizontal and especially Diagonal lines. Curve lines, to me, are difficult to find at first especially from movement of persons like those samples from handbook and from the book. I could see only the obvious ones which are the photos I took below.

1) Row of of Grey Lag geese
The image below was taken in Kensington garden in London. It was very warm and sunny. I wanted to take a picture of all the geese standing next to the curve which would have been seen as a cuve and all of them would have faced in one direction but as far as ducks/geese are concerned, they tend to preen themselves all the time! (every 3 seconds) so all I could see was all the geese facing down preening themselves next to the pond!

2) Tree The image below was taken while walking through the park. I have to admit I try to copy the image I remember from the handbook which has a tree truck and 2 circles on both side. This tree is however different, just slightly. the curve itself is induced from the branches curving down. I place a tree on the edge of the frame so I can see all the branches curving down.


3) Metal Fence
This image was taken near the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain As I walked along the fence I could see the curve line of the fence interact with lines that are made by people (vertical lines) walking (horizontal direction) further behind. I think the lines (vertical and horizontal) has emphasised the curve made by the fence.


4) The staircase
This image was taken in Sommerset House. This staircase isnot quite so curvy but as I look up to the ceiling I like how it's shape has formed which does look quite spiral.


Summary:
1. Curve contains a change of direction. It has movement so it carries the eye along itself.
2. Curves are more difficult to put in picture. It can be an implied line by connecting many points in pictures or it can be an obvious line like those images I took.

Exercise - Diagonals

Diagonal lines are far easier to find than horizontal or vertical lines.. (at least for me!)
Mainly because they depend on view point and even with horizontal lines, by tilting the view finder in angle, I could easily get diagonal lines.

1) top of the building
This image was taken in Wimbledon tennis area. The weather was nice and the sky was beautiful!! so I could take picture of the building very easily. By aiming the view finder up, this building was easily seen as a diagonal.



2) Train approaching
This image was taking at one of the train stations in the southeast of England. with this view point, standing at an angle to the edge of the platform, the rail track will always seem as a diagonal line. By tilting the camera a bit more, the whole image looks more dynamic now (to me) especially with train approaching too.



3) Kayak
This image was taking when we went for a walk along the River Thames. I could easily place the kayak in a diagonal line to the frame.



4) along the deck chairs
I took this image at 55mm. I did not try shooting with wider angle (18mm) but if I had taken with wider angle, the deck chairs would have been further apart.
maybe I should have tried. will try next time when i go back to the park and if the chairs are still there!!



5) Trooping the Colour
I took this image while walking near London. There was "Trooping the Colour" on the Queen's birthday.
The Red Arrows (Hawk) have formed a zigzag diagonal line and it also gives a sense of direction of going forward because of the orientation of the aircraft themself.




Conclusion (and learning information)
a) Diagonal lines introduce the most dynamism into a photograph. They respresent unresolved problems.
b) Through the viewfinder, most diagonal lines do appear as a result of viewpoint. (horizontal / vertical placed in angle against frame edge)
c) The maximum for a single diagonal is 45deg but with 2 or 3 different diagonals combined, the strongest effect is when the relative angles are all great without being equal.
d) Out of the 5 images taken above, the Kayak one seem less dynamic than the rest that's because diagonals appear more dynamic when they form a stronger angle with the longer side of the frame. The shorter side of the frame seem to trap the the boat in place that it can't move therefore it seems less dynamic.
e) Parallel diagonals reinforce each other; a variety of diagonals gives the greatest energy to an image.