Getting Stuck In

I have taken a short break from the projects having just been on a holiday to Spain but now I'm back and ready to get stuck in.

I acquired insurance for my DSLR and took it with me to Benicassim but unfortunately it was not exactly ideal to carry it with me everywhere I went. The main reason for the holiday was to attend FIB (Festival International de Benicassim). Information about the festival can be found at http://fiberfib.com/en/line-up/benicassim-festival-2009/. With being there for a music festival, we were camping, so storing my camera in a tent would not have been a good idea at all, it lived out of sight in the boot of our car most of the time. I took it out on a few days but didn't manage to capture much more than my friends and I fooling around and having a laugh.

Now I'm back in the UK it's time to get stuck in.

Points: Defining, Positioning, Multiple and Relationships

A Point is an object within a photograph that occupies a small fraction of space and contrasts in some way with it's surroundings.

Below are some examples of "Points" within photography:

• Bird flying in clear sky
• Stars
• Moon
• Small cloud
• Flower on a lawn
• Animal in a field
• Pebble on beach/sand
• Small window on a large wall
• Tree in a field
• Boat on water
• Person in a field
• Farm vehicle in a field
• Car in an empty car park
• Boat on water
• Person/Duck/Anybird swimming
• Centre of a flower (macro)

The aim of my next set of photographs was to capture the same point in three different positions in the frame. I noticed a flower had dropped from a plant in the garden and decided to use this as my subject as the grass as a background is fairly plain and the flower only takes up a small section of the frame.

01 Top Left50mm, 1/4000s, f/2.8

02 Top Right

50mm, 1/2500s, f/2.8

03 Bottom Right

50mm, 1/2000s, f/2.8

01. I decided to begin with the flower in the top left of the frame as I felt this composition would work. Placing the flower upon a point where two lines from the rule of thirds cross gives a strong composition but the direction in which it is pointing makes the object appear cramped in the corner.

02. I then tried positioning the flower on the opposite side of the frame to see if this would improve the composition. When looking at the point, the viewers eyes are drawn up and left, away from the subject. With the viewer wanting to look above the point, their eyes meet the edge of the frame too soon therefor being left with the same cramped feeling.

03. The third and final position no longer feels cramped. With a viewers eyes wanting to look up and to the left of the point I placed the flower in the bottom right corner, again on a point where two of the lines from the rule of thirds cross. I feel that this position works very well as a viewers eyes are drawn up from the point and move to the left before reaching the top of the frame, once on the left hand side they're then drawn down to the grass that is in focus and back towards the flower.

"With a single point, the main relationship is between the point and the frame. Here however, the relationship between the two points dominates the composition. The eye is drawn from one to the other, in turn. This, as you should be able to see, sets up an implied line and direction in the picture, and also creates a vaguely defined space just around the two points." - The explanation of relationships between points from the Art of Photography Student Handbook.

01 Two Flowers on a lawn

50mm, 1/800s, f/7.1

02 A Pebble and a rock on the Beach

50mm, 1/3200s, f/5

03 Two Stones on the Beach

50mm, 1/3200s, f/5

01 Admittedly I was struggling to find naturally occurring points so I created a scene which could occur naturally. I placed a second flower close to the flower from the previous project and positioned them in the frame as best I could. A definite line can be seen between the two points as a viewers eyes are indeed drawn from one to the other repeatedly. The orange flower is most definitely the dominant point with being higher in the image and larger than the other subject.

02 Once again a definite line is visible between the two points. The larger stone is the much more dominant due to it's position in the image, sheer size and the fact that the white pebble is out of focus.

03 In this image, the line between the points isn't as strong although it is still there. After a few minutes studying the image I have decided that white stone is more dominant. It is in focus, higher in the picture and the colour stands out slightly more than the brown tones of the other.

It is possible to take a photograph where neither point is dominant, such an example of this would be an extreme close-up of the eyes on a face, the eyes being the two points.

To display multiple points, I setup a still life scene. I used sand for the background as it is plain and simple yet contours and shapes can still be seen in it throughout the series of photographs. I fixed my camera above the scene using a tripod and aimed it down. As for the subjects, I chose objects that can either be found at a beach, would be taken with you to the beach or have a nautical theme to compliment the sand background. The idea of taking a shot each time a subject is added is to show the decisions I made to eventually create my final arrangement.

01 Single Shell

50mm, 1/400s, f/14

02 Shell and Rock

50mm, 1/400s, f/14

03 Shell, Rock and Ship in a Bottle

50mm, 1/400s, f/14

04 Two Shells, Rock and Bottle

50mm, 1/400s, f/14

05 Two Shells, Rock, Bottle and Sunglasses

50mm, 1/400s, f/14

06 Two Shells, Rock, Bottle, Sunglasses and an Ornamental Canon

50mm, 1/320s, f/14

Relationships between Points

In the last image I have drawn arrows to show the relationship between each point. A viewers eyes move between each point, backward and forward before then moving onto the next. Some points are more dominant that others, the larger and brighter objects for example. I have also drawn diagonal lines through the image as the points create these and in turn create four very definite triangles. The position of the subjects creates a triangle on the left, the right, the top and the bottom.

3: Elements of Design

"Aim: To help understand and use the basic principles of graphic design in photography"

The objective is to be able to identify the graphic elements in any photograph, to asses how important a role they play, and to be able to use them for structure and movement in a composition.

Whilst completing "The Frame", The Golden Section and Balance were touched upon and therefore I have already been introduced to a few elements of design. I am looking forward to learning about more of them and ultimately using them to improve my own photographs.