These perfectly round holes in the wood are not man-made but are the result of larvae of the wood wasp or horntail biting their way into freedom after years of living inside the tree.
In contrast, this circle is entirely man-made. As are the curvy reflections in the window.
The Berlin TV tower built in the 1960s on the East German side.
And last not least these spheres of light on a curve for Cee’s black and white challenge: circles and curves.
Cee’s next tips are on “Cropping“. It is the first thing with which I started to play around when changing to digital photography even though at the time I had a relatively crappy camera. On my first printed album pages – the equivalent of the sophisticated photobooks one can now put together online – I played around with a variety of formats and I’ve learned to be more conservative in sticking to traditional formats, particularly when the photos are displayed close to each other.
We were having a lot of fun in this playground for adults (it’s a tree top trail).
But the focus in this shot should be on the people (I have others that show off the trail). Switching to portrait does just that.
A bit further along we found a slide.
Again I cropped the photo to cut out ‘noise’ and changed it from landscape to portrait but I also angled the shot a bit to give it more impact. Being closer also shows off the awkward position of the body since this slide was not adult-size.
In the same area there is a woodcarver who has gone slightly mad – his sometimes bizarre sculptures are everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE.
I cropped the little bloke tightly and got rid of the leaves overhead (there weren’t enough in this frame to look like anything but some weird speckles).
Then I decided to try for a square foto. I concentrated on the head and moved it more to the centre (in the second shot he was positioned more to the right). Of course, the weird sitting position (don’t even think about what this little guy is doing!) is being lost but it shows off the smile crumpling his face as well as the cracked wood. I keep changing my mind which photo I like better depending on what I find more important.
Here is another threesome. I spotted this arrangement in a closed up window last weekend. Of course, the window is already a square frame and the plaster wall to both sides adds nothing to the composition.
I could have cropped even closer leaving only the black wood to frame the arrangement but I preferred the slightly loser crop.
Or, alternatively, I got very close ignoring the dwarf daffodils and moss and the second (rather ugly plastic) pot and concentrated on the two chicken. By switching to a square format I could lose the wooden item to the right of the smaller chicken.
Let’s stay with birds for the rest of the pictures. It’s obvious there is too much dead space surrounding the head of this goose.
I could have cropped to a portrait showing off the long neck. But there wasn’t all that much neck in the original photo so I decided on a 1:1 format keeping the orange rimmed eye almost centre.
Different location, similar bird. The goose is not positioned properly and the little heap to the left doesn’t really add anything to the mood of the photo.
So I went very close, once again focussing on the eye.
Last goose of the post. This little guy rushed off just when I took the picture. As a result he is too far to the left. Cropping close to the gosling didn’t work very well because of his downy fluff being slightly blurred.
However, I think I rescued a passable photo by concentrating closely on his foot.
“Perspective” and knowing what your main topic is – or, in my case, this often means only finding out later when I review my photos what the main topic was.
When I am out and about with my running friends I often snap photos – literally snap because I’m there to participate in the fun and taking pictures comes second. Usually my main objective is to capture the people that are there with me. We were having a break from our jogging/hiking day at the shores of Lake Constance. Beer was waiting for us bobbing on the waves. I like the fancy clothes people are wearing at these occasions and I am particularly drawn to runners’ socks and their messages.
The next four shots were all taken at a pre-wedding party. I was there with my camera and my brief was to take pictures of the guests as unobtrusively as possible.
In the first photo the focus is very obviously on the people and the overall garden setting showing off the newly acquired house of the soon-to-be-weds and the party area in front. Not a great shot per se but one setting the mood and showing the crowd. The second photo was taken from the same position but focussing on the balcony with its pretty flowers and the bird cut-out and reflection in the window.
The following two shots are again taken with completely different objectives in mind. The first one shows three guests on a cigarette break, totally unawares of being photographed. I liked the way they were standing next to the little amorette all in white. It would have been better if the third person had not been blocked by the one in the middle (I could have moved to the right to avoid that). The second shot focusses clearly on the head of one of the women. I found the colours of her dyed hair fascinating. Coming to think of it, this would have been a good photo to illustrate the 2/3 rule, bokeh and all.
CEE’S COMPOSE YOURSELF PHOTO CHALLENGE: WEEK #13 Perspective
pictures imperfect blog 