Assignment 2: Elements in Design

Single Point

Here we have a photograph of Durdle Dor on the Dorset Coast. This is a simple piece with the single point clearly dominant and placed center left within the frame. The positioning of the famous Arch or ‘Dor’ was heavily influence by its natural position and access to the area. We will see with a few of the photographs in EOD I have opted for a long exposure for effect.
This was a 30 second exposure through a welding glass which equates approximately to a 10 stop Neutral Density filter. Long exposure is a process I very much like and recently I have been influenced by the photographer Michael Kenna, and it is his simplicity, minimalism I have tried to create. The exposure was made with the sea quite choppy and a low southerly sun highlighted the rocks beautifully, which together with the long exposure made this shot work for me.
Unusually I have used a centre placed horizon, this is quite deliberate as the subject is warrants equal setting in sea and sky, moving off a centre horizon for me would have taken some emphasis away from the true subject in the frame.



Two Points

I took a set of photographs on the Quantock Hills, North Somerset as part of this exercise. I challenged myself with trying to capture as many of the required compositions as I could in one setting.
Here we have a photograph of these interesting small trees we find on the Moors, swept over by the ever present wind giving a wonderful sense of direction and movement. Their relationship I think is clear and they are placed well within the frame.
For a second time I have chosen a middle placed horizon. There wasn’t much detail in the sky from this angle and I felt the horizontals of the foreground added some interest and also that they follow the direction of the larger swept tree.
The prints seem a little dark in the shadows, please see the digital versions.




Several Points in a deliberate shape

Dinnington House in Somerset has 16th century origins, but was reshaped around 1838 by Sir James Pennethorne for J.E.Lee. It is now a Grade II. Dillington House was the country residence of George III's Prime Minister, Lord North who acquired it through marriage to Anne Speke.
Here I made a photograph of the Gardens to the rear of the main house. I intended to capture the symmetrical shapes and clear points as arranged as part of the garden design.



Combination of Vertical and Horizontals

Potato Farm.
These huge stacks of Potato containers struck me. I love how this shot seems to compare them with the height of the trees behind them. This photograph also has great texture rhythm and pattern in fact. It could well have been a candidate for others but the intention was the horizontal and vertical lines the stacks of crates gives us.



Diagonals

Back to the Quantock Hills. What grabbed me here was the clean straight lines of the cloud, it presented itself to me as a diagonal from my perspective. I then composed the photograph to marry the cloud with the pathway which also lead away as a diagonal.
In Landscape Diagonal seldom occur naturally so one needs to think about positioning and perspective to create the diagonals as I did here.



Curves

The cob, Lyme Regis. I find this place really interesting and I shall continue to photograph it from all angles and perspectives until I make something truly different and powerful. In this case I opted for a shot looking back from the centre of the cob to its start point. Such a popular attraction it is difficult indeed to get a shot without the inclusion of people. At this stage in my ‘long exposure’ pursuits I have upgraded from welding glass to a 10 stop Lee ND filter and holder system.


Irregular shapes

Foliage. Finding an actual landscape in my area that fulfilled this theme proved too difficult for me so I had to look within the environment for this.


Implied Triangle

Lake beach with tree stumps. Chard Reservoir Somerset. I Really like this shot, the distended root formations make this interesting to me. They in themselves project a triangular shape but them arrangement of them, for me draws us into the image. Note the wonderful textures in the stumps and the movement of the leaves within the tree tops.


Implied Triangle 2

Tree’d hill top, Dorset. The Implied triangle here is very clear, and easy hill topped with this set of trees. This is a well know ‘shot’ in the area so I tried to get a new angle for it.


Rhythm



Pattern