Compositional Shots ... OR ... The Rule Of Thirds.

Compositional Practice #2

Here's another picture of trees (you might be noticing a recurring theme by now!). I chose this image because the artist in my liked the trees next to the lampposts - I suppose it evoked memories of the lamppost-tree in Narnia (!) as well as placing the man-made next to the natural. Here the trees are once again right in the middle of the picture, and the lampposts are slightly off to the side. You can also see a little building on the right hand side, as well as a car.

Here's the new and improved picture:

For this second picture, I left the idea of the trees as the main focus, and put the focus on the man-made things, whilst keeping much of the top two-thirds as sky, just to maintain some sort of balance. The left third is roughly where the trees are, and the right third includes the two nearest lampposts.

Admittedly, one flaw of the use of the Rule Of Thirds for this picture is that the points of intersection don't instantly leap out as being over anything particularly interesting. However, I liked the use of the different thirds to much to pass up on using this photograph.

Compositional Shots ... OR ... The Rule Of Thirds.

Compositional Practice #1

Here I've taken a picture of a tree on an island in the middle of the River Wick. Because I've made the tree the focal point of the photograph, I've positioned it pretty much in the centre. I know the geographical context in which it was taken but there's not too much on the picture to really give anything away about it.

Aiming to improve the composition of this photograph, I used the Rule Of Thirds technique and took the picture again. The general idea is that you imagine splitting the frame into three rows and three columns (so nine segments). The points of intersection are the key points. Luckily, my camera has the option to show the grid, which is a good thing as my idea of spacial awareness etc is not up to much...

Here's the new and improved picture:

This picture shows a lot more of the context. The right hand third is almost completely taken up by the tree, and the sky takes up roughly the top third of the photograph. By just changing the angle from which the photograph was taken, the tree looks even more magnificent as it is put into its context by the presence in the photo of more trees and, mostly importantly, the river itself. Because the sky is mostly limited to the top third of the photograph, it also brings the viewer's focus back down to Earth, whilst still successfully framing the trees.

The intersection points roughly work out as the place where the branches on the tree begin and where they begin to thin out, and where the line of other trees begins a downwards curve.

Welcome :)

Hello and welcome to my Visual Sociology blog!

Before I write anything else I do have to admit that I'm very bad at blogging so you'll have to be patient with me :)

This is where I will post my thoughts and photos for my Visual Sociology module, something that I really need to start working on straight away!!! So... let the fun commence! (Starting with "The Rule of Thirds" I believe!)

Disclaimer: life may not be a weasel - that is just the way that life currently seems to me. Also it should be noted that I think weasels are lovely. They are quite possibly my favourite member of the animal kingdom.