Project 20 - Horizontal and Vertical Lines

For this project I had to produce 8 photos showing examples of horizontal and vertical lines.

Firstly my vertical lines

Trees growing tall and straight.  I also like that the trees are reflected in the lake and the trees in the background are out of focus.  As the trees are shown only in part, the vertical aspect is emphasised.

Support pole on a building site.  There are horizontal lines around it, but the upright pole is clearly the main subject in this image.

The vertical pattern in a fence panel, together with the vertical fence post.

Vertical soldiers on a flight of stairs. 

The trees give the natural vertical lines - the others are man-made.

My horizontal lines

The horizon which is probably the most obvious horizontal line in nature to photograph.

Breeze block wall - the blocks form a horizontal line across the frame.  Your eye is drawn from side to side.

Wooden joists.  The joists are photogrpahed in horizontal lines and the shadows add more horizontal lines to the image.

Stairs giving horizontal lines to this image.

When shooting this project I became incresingly aware of the lines around us.  I found it easier to find vertical lines to shoot; tall buildings, people, bus stops, trees etc.  I particularly like the lines created by the contrast in light as shown in the phot of the wooden joists above.  I also like the direction and movement implied by lines, for example in the photo of trees above, your eye moves along the height of the trees.  I was also intrigued how a line of verticals can equal a horizontal line as in the photo above of the stair soldiers.  Your eye moves up and down the soldiers but also horizontally along the line.

I intend to return to this project at a later date when I have a bigger collection of photos, as I enjoyed looking at the way the different orientation of lines within an image works.

Putting the course to good use.....

While we were out last Sunday, enjoying the glorious weather, we drove by one of my favourite views not far from where we live.  As luck would have it, I had my camera and.....

......... this is it !  The sky was wonderful and the wheat is almost ready, and that line of trees looked perfect.  So remembering what I had learned in Project 12 - Positioning the Horizon, I took several shots and this is my favourite.  Again, the horizon is placed low in the frame and the interesting sky justifies its large space in the image. 

Project 12 - Positioning the Horizon

For this project I shot a series of photographs looking out to sea at Sheringham in Norfolk, positioning the horizon centrally, in the top third and in the bottom third of the frame.

 

This photograph shows the horizon placed centrally in the frame.  The image is balanced in terms of composition because of this equal division.  I think the image is quite pleasing but it isn't particularly eye-catching.  The blues of the sea and the sky complement each other well and the overall feeling is one of calm. 

In this image the horizon has been positioned in the lower third of the frame and gives more importance to the skyscape.  The clouds add interest to the image as they are more prominent in the image, as the sky now occupies a larger proportion of the photo.  The eye is constantly drawn back to the clouds and there is a sense of movement in the clouds which wasn't there in the previous image.

In this final image the horizon is placed in the top third of the frame.  There is movement in the sea which is more clearly visible in this image as it occupies more of the frame.  However my eye is still being drawn back to the sky - I think this is because the sky is a much lighter shade of blue. 

Of these pictures I much prefer the one where the horizon is placed in the lower third.  The sky is more interesting than the foreground sea because of the clouds in this instance.  I feel that this image has a greater sense of depth than the other two, again probably because of the prominent clouds leading the eye through the image.

I forgot to take a picture with foreground detail, so I reshot the project when I was at a local airfield.

In this image the horizon has been placed centrally in the frame.  Although equal in division, the green of the grass makes the foreground appear more prominent.  Even the interesting clouds can't help the eye from being drawn back to the grass and foreground.  I like the trees marking the line of the horizon in this series.

In this image the horizon has been placed in the lower third of the frame.  The sky and wonderful cloud formation is much more prominent and makes for a more dynamic image.  The big cloud at the front dwarfs the trees on the horizon.  The clouds lead the eye through the image adding to the depth of the image.  This is my favourite of this series.

                                     

In this image the horizon is placed in the top third of the frame.  More prominence is given to the foreground grass.  The image is not as interesting with this composition as the sky and clouds are not as striking.

                                      

In this image the horizon is again placed centrally, but the main focus of the image is the derelict brick airfield building in the foreground.  The horizon, grass and sky no longer have the importance in the image, and the eye is drawn to the texture of the building, and the trees growing in and over it. 

Having read the notes in the file, it would appear that the greater feeling of depth in an image should appear when the horizon is place high in the image.  However, I think that in my images the skies and particularly the cloud formations add to the sense of depth in the image when the horizon is placed low.  In both of my images with the horizon placed in the lower third of the frame, the clouds give a sense of movement, and also act as leading lines in the image of the sea.

Still planning but getting somewhere.....

Well, I now have 9 pairs of contrasts. I have a spare pair in rough / smooth which I added over the last couple of days. I also have an extra option for "straight" as I had already got a photo of a lovely straight road near us, but over the weekend I was out walking with my younger son and we saw crops just beginning to come through which had been sown in lovely straight lines. I'll have to decide which to use.

I have also got my photo which demonstrates one contrast in a single image. I have chosen an abstract I took of a zebra's markings. It's clearly a zebra, and to me "black and white" jump into your mind when I think of zebras.

I have also begun to pull some pictures together for project 14 which is the "vertical and horizontal in a frame" project. So far I think I have 3 pairs out of the required 20 or so pairs. Plenty to be getting on with then. I also have to give thought to the horizon placement project, project 12. I did take some photos for this at Sheringham but forgot to take one with foreground interest ! D'oh !!

I also need to look at project 8, recording a sequence. I did take pictures of a small demonstration in the city, but haven't looked through them properly with a view to using them. If they aren't really usable, maybe I will visit a market. I have got a series of pictures I took at a homecoming parade in December - they may work..... Hmmmm I'll have to give it some thought.