Project 18 - relationship between points

A not dissimilar project, but this time between two points. While this scene is a little busier than the swimmer the river seems to be sufficiently isolating to make the point, as it were.

In the first image, the white and blue boat is clearly the most dominant point due to its size and position in the foreground; it's difficult even to see what the other point/boat is in the distance. There is a sense though that one is following the other, set up within the context of the river providing a narrowish space in which the action would be expected to take place. In the second image the last boat, which it is now possible to see is an orange lifeboat, is the more dominant, mostly because of its colour this time although it is of course also closer to the foreground. It still feels as if it's very much following in the wake of the first boat though, emphasising that sense of direction.

Now it strikes me, maybe boats were a bad thing to choose, and on a river as well, because their action is predictable, to a certain extent?

Project 17

This project is all about defining points and the graphic relationship the points have with the frame.

I had come up with some ideas for points, as requested in project 16: seagulls on the beach; sheep in a field; daisies in the lawn; the moon in the sky or distant people on a mountainside, but instead opted for a brave lady swimming in the sea.

As the images themselves aren't that interesting - in general distant points on a fairly bland background are unlikely to be - I have included the intersection of lines that I added later in Photoshop.
Placing her centrally in the frame makes her look rather lost and aimless; there's no sense of direction, where she is going to or where she has come from.

This I think is the most successful because her swimming parallel to the beach "into" the picture provides a sense of direction and implies that she still has some way to go, providing an element of movement.
I had thought that by positioning her on the left hand side of the frame it would appear as if she had already swum across the frame. Which I think it does, but it is less satisfying - as if the story has been told and we are too late for it.

Assignment 1 revisited

At last I've been able to get back to this assignment and make some progress. A day out in Littlehampton surprisingly provided lots of inspiration for new shots and contrasts following feedback on Flickr. While there seemed to be positive feedback for some images, "light" and "heavy" and "black" and "white" seemed generally to be misunderstood - and therefore they clearly weren't expressing the meaning as intended. And with the benefit of hindsight and some distance that meant I wasn't so emotionally involved I've been able to do a bit of culling, a bit of editing, and hopefully some better selections.

So, some images have been rejected but here is the complete set, just for clarity - mine, that is!

Dark
I really struggled with the concept of illustrating "dark" and how it would appear in contrast to the "light" image. My theory here was that the candles are giving off light, and they are the focus of the light source. Whereas in "dark", the lack of light is the overall sense of the image which is of the "cisterns" underground in Istanbul.

Light

Rounded
I was thinking colour here mostly, the orange and blue contrasting strongly... and had also been a little inspired by the "circle in a square" Flickr group that seemed to include lots of images of plates... this is better than that, I think.

Diagonal
I really struggled with diagonal... although reading later on in the course which reckons that diagonals are everywhere - I clearly wasn't trying hard enough! I was very taken by the gas container in Littlehampton though, and particularly liked the colours.

Few
A fleeting moment, "few" of course referring to the surfers.

Many
I've never seen so many swans together... this would be great in black and white but I was also keen to keep the colour of the beaks which I did enhance slightly. I took probably 20 exposures and only this one comes close to getting the right sort of angle and positioning. I left the right hand edge clear for the swans to "swim in to".

Straight
What with "continuous" and "intermittent" I felt I'd overdone the long straight line going off into the distance, but here are some straights, both horizontal and vertical.

Curved

Pointed

Blunt

Still
I cropped this as suggested by a fellow student... it does I think represent "still" better (which is the point) although I do still like being able to see the bridge and Lancing college in the background that misses the point of the assignment - so, gone!

Movement

Intermittent

Continuous

Low
Feedback from a couple of people suggested these two images should have their titles swapped to reflect the viewpoint or the perceived comparative height. It hadn't occurred to me but it now seems blindingly obvious and makes much more sense.

High

Curved and straight

Assignment One

Over the last few weeks I've gradually been gathering together images for Assignment One - contrasts, and have requested feedback from the Flickr group on them. If you have any comments, please do add them, thank you!

Curved


Straight


Black


White


Continuous


Intermittent


High


Low


Pointed


Blunt


Few


Many


Light


Heavy


Still


Moving


Curved and straight