This is the decoration above a shop which sells knitwear and other fashions. It may be art, it may be a demonstration that their wares weather well. I’m not sure.
https://ceenphotography.com/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge/
Author: eklastic
Zu alt, um nur zu spielen. Zu jung, um ohne Wunsch zu sein.
Countryroad, take me home
A road in the Rhein Plain in early spring with the hills of the Odenwald in the back – a view to end all feeling of homesickness – at least for me.
Eine Straße in der Rheinebene im Frühling mit den Bergen des Odenwalds im Hintergrund – zumindest für mich ein Anblick, der jedes Heimweh verscheucht.
Audit
I haven’t managed to work through the backlog of Cee’s challenge (I hesitate to call it challenge it feels more like my private online tutoring) so my choices are limited to the early assignments.
I’ll start off with a photo which is not the greatest but it reminds me of a wonderful holiday. The diagonal line divides the picture into two contrasting colours – not a hundred percent according to the colour wheel but close enough. The famous Eiger Nordwand is as geometrical as triangles come and the mountain to the right (I think it’s the Jungfrau but don’t quote me) is not only a triangle but the slope of the Eiger and the slope in the foreground create a negative triangle as well.
Here are harmonious colours, i.e. colours which are next to each other on the colour wheel. From the yellow green in the bottom third to the deep green of the cornstalks to the blueish hue of the upper third. Surprise! The photo is divided in more or less even thirds, and the different colours and patterns are so well defined that they create horizontal lines.
Another photo teeming with geometrical shapes from the pink rectangle on the left, the acute triangle next to it and the isosceles triangle with the right angle in the upper right hand corner. There are a couple of smaller triangles as well. But I like it because of the great laugh which is so infectious.
Lines seem to show off best in black and white photos.
Another leading curved line. The viewer is drawn along the the line created by the pier to the lighthouse which is off centre and a bit to the top. The sky above the horizont is an enormous amount of negative space.
And one of my favourites with contrasting colours (blue opposite the orangey rust), the seagull with her head, the focal point, in the upper right 3/9.
I have definitely learned about taking photos and have realised that I use some of the principles now instead of just clicking. But more so Cee has opened my eyes to see why I like some of happy-click photos a lot and others less. I tend now to think more before I click. What I want to say to Cee is: Thank you! You have taught me a lot in the last weeks (and I hope that you will keep doing this).
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: #20 Review and Practice
Drei mal drei macht neune 🎵🎶
This time it is Cee’s introduction to the rule of thirds – which harks back to the golden ratio.
Here are some simple versions of the rule of thirds – all taken in Northumberland – where the picture is divided by three lines, more or less dividing it into equal vertical stripes.
And now for something completely different – NOT. The same principle but from a very different landscape (the Odenwald in Southwest Germany) and in very different colours.
Back to the see with a rusty detail. It is often not so easy with automatic cameras to focus on a subject which is off centre – often this can be rescued later on with cropping.
This cat – Louis by name – shows off the rule of thirds to his advantage, the eyes are in the upper left field and are the obvious centre of this shot.
His mate Charly presents two focal point – his eye and his nose, in the upper right and lower left field of the photo. Both focal points vie for attention, the nose through its light pink colour but the eye with his intensive looks take the prize.
This is one of my favourite photographs with a model that posed like a pro. Again, the rule of thirds is displayed in the horizontal lines, the more solid lower one, the upper one being less obvious one, as well as in the main focal point of the photograph, the head of the seagull.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #9 Rule of Thirds Introduction
Sandwiches cut diagonally just taste better.
“Diagonal lines” – #8 from Cee’s Compose Yourself. One can write essays on diagonal lines, but the quintessential is,, : they make a photograph less boring. Here I have experimented with cropping and angling the shot more.
Running up a bridge – in pretty red dresses.
I didn’t need to angle this goose, it swam into my view in a perfect diagonal. Since I was standing practiacally on top of her/him this worked out quite well, and definitely less boring than just a straight horizontal swim.
A spot of outdoor bowling. The diagonal of the bowler conveys the action of the moment, her face does the rest.
The diagonal here dominates the shot as basically the whole head of the animal is in a diagonal, the grass stalks points towards the focal point of the photo, the horses eye.
The drama in this photo comes, of course, from the woman’s face. But the two diagonals (the arm, and from her middle to her nose) make this shot more dramatic.
A bench on skis … if I there was any snow it might just slide off the picture.
A dramatic sunrise in the alps – with the closer mountain ridge just blocking the sun.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #8 Diagonal Lines
Higher and higher
“Vertical lines” – #7 from Cee’s Compose Yourself. I thought photographs for this challenge might be easy to find in my “archives” but … not so much.
This face of a building is interesting but I needed to crop it to get rid of the cars driving in front of it. Keeping the same dimensions as the original,the windows to the right and left are distracting. I have the same problem with many photos of similar buildings (usually in fairly narrow streets) but this style fascinates me, nevertheless, it is typical for inner city buildings in the west of Germany, dating from around 1900.
This strange sculpture of two naked children was difficult to photograph as there was no suitable background on any side (cheap grocery stores etc., all in this not very attractive architectural style). The tree trunk in front of it doesn’t help either but it strengthens the vertical line.
Street lamps are usually thin and pointing upwards,
so are church spires.
This picture of this flaming orange tulip works in landscape format because of the close-up.
But even though the background is more cluttered in this portrait shot, I think the picture works better that way..
After having snapped the first shot of my husband walking between these houses in Sunderland, UK, I tried to align the lamps so that only the front one showed (husband plodding along unawares). No question which is the better photo, is it?
This a man-made attraction is highest cold-water geysir in the world. The Andernach geysir shoots water up to 60 metres high at regular interval during summer. It’s situated on a peninsula and ships bring about 300 tourists at a time, they watch the eruption and go back. In the first shot it looks pretty unspectacular, the vertical line isn’t strong and it basically just shows people milling around a fountain. D’oh. The second shot is still nothing spectacular.
In the third shot – again I switched to portrait format to show off the fountain – the viewer joins the crowd in watching the fountain go up, enhanced by many of the onlookers pointing their own cameras upwards.
I prefer the close up of the erupting geysir itself, though, with nothing distracting from the water.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #7 Vertical Lines
More than horizontal lines?
“Horizontal lines and horizon” – the ultimate travel theme, isn’t it?
Being (sometimes) quite contrary, I looked for horizontal lines closer to home. In details,
and in views.
Water is the element that lends itself most to horizontal lines
no matter where, no matter what season.
But the ultimate horizon shouldn’t be absent in a horizontal theme.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #6 Horizontal Lines and Horizon
How many roads
“Leading lines” – #5 in Cee’s challenge which is really a class which so much to learn!
This shot would have probably been better without the pole in the middle but I was trapped behind windows in an airport when I took it.
The obvious choice, a path, a wall, a vanishing point. This photo was taken at the German national garden show in Brandenburg an der Havel, at the wall encircling the old church district.
Agriculture tends to thrive on lines.
So thus architecture.
I used the Roker Beach lighthouse before but how could I not?
Completely different water, and a bridge rather than a pier. That’s the Moseltalbrücke which at its highest point is 218m high.
And finally, a somewhat quirky office building in the town of Heimsberg in North-Rhine Westphalia.
Cee’s Compose Yourself Photo Challenge: Week #5 Leading Lines
Next to nothing or very little
“Simplicity” – void space – for Cee’s Compose Yourself photo challenge.
Hanging in space – literally. But with safety net.
Even the head is submerged in void space.
And just a simple flower.
Cropped and uncropped:
And finally, in my opionion the best shot of the lot. Coloured and black&white:
As much as I like the delicate yellow, I think I prefer the white tulip, though.
pictures imperfect blog 