OCA COURSE
THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY
IAN GLAVES
504473
ASSIGNMENT 2:
Elements of design
As most of my education and working life has been heavily involved with the sciences, I found this art-orientated assignment a challenge, but then I suppose that's the whole idea!
The theme for my collection of images is "Trees". I live on the edge of the North York Moors Forest Park, so there are a lot of them about. Nevertheless, finding images that fitted the brief proved difficult on occasions. Most of the images are un-cropped, with minor adjustments of exposure, contrast, saturation and sharpening using Adobe Lightroom 2.
1.Single point dominating the composition: Beech Plump. This is a clump of beech trees sitting on its own in the middle of a large area of cultivated fields. I don't know the origin of the name "Plump" in this context, but that's what it's called. It dominates the area by being singular and slightly higher than its surroundings, and I thought it would be more dominant if left in shade, contrasting against the sunlit field in the foreground (potatoes with tops chemically burned prior to harvesting). I used a 28-135mm zoom on maximum telephoto setting, on a tripod.
2. Two points: Moors. I took this image about a year ago on a bird-watching walk. I thought at the time the cloud formation was interesting, but on second look the two trees on the horizon add perspective and scale to the image. There are also implied triangles here. I used a 17-40mm lens at the widest setting, with a polarizing filter to enhance the blue sky. It was hand held.
3. Several points in a deliberate shape: Cones. I really struggled with this particular exercise. I hunted high and low to find an arrangement of separate trees in some sort of recognizable shape, to the extent I became a danger to other road users! In the end, more out of frustration than anything, I "arranged" these cones found under a pine tree, into a rough triangular shape. Although the forest floor can be interesting, I fear this is a dreadful photograph and I really don't like it. I used a 50mm macro lens and a tripod.
4. A combination of vertical and horizontal lines: Scots pines. The forest edge exposes tree trunks and branches which are normally inaccessible due to the density of growth in the commercial plantations. The field, fence and gate, as well as some of the branches, give the horizontal contrast to the vertical trunks. Not a particularly spectacular image! I used a 100-400mm zoom at about 135mm, and a tripod.
5. Diagonals: Larch trees. Commercial forestry is only interested in growing tall and straight trees, so they are planted close together and progressively thinned out to reach maturity at about 40 years (it's a slow business!). These are mature larch trees. I tilted the camera upward, and rotated it to position the central tree across the frame. The sunlight catching the uppermost branches added a little colour. I used the 17-40mm zoom at its widest setting, but hand-held because of the awkward positioning.
6. Curves: Eucalypt leaves: There is a small experimental patch of Eucalyptus trees in the forest, which, as it turns out, aren't commercially viable. They produce nice pink leaves, so I arranged these to try and show a series of curves. I could have cropped a bit closer, I think. A 50mm macro lens was used, with a tripod.
7. Distinct, even if irregular, shapes: "Chameleon" eucalypt bark. I went into the Eucalyptus plantation with this exercise in mind, as I knew the bark had interesting patterns. Wow! The first tree I looked at, there was this Chameleon staring at me. What a gift. I've included another bark image to show what I was expecting to see. Both were taken with the 50mm macro lens, and a tripod, with good depth of field to compensate for the curvature of the trunk.
8. At least two kinds of implied triangle: Nursery, and Beech roots. Wykeham Forest has fields (called nurseries) that are used to grow seedlings for new plantations across the nations' forests. In fact, it grows about 11 million every year. They are sown in straight rows five wide to facilitate mechanical harvesting. Perspective has thrown the parallel rows into a triangle, which I assume, is therefore implied and not real. A 17mm wide-angle setting and a tripod were used. The beech roots are at the other end of the age spectrum, and some have been felled because they are a danger to the road by which they stand. The roots have a firm grip on the earth, and there are three implied triangles here, one either end with apices upwards, and one centrally with apex downwards. A 50mm macro lens on a tripod was used. There are also implied triangles in the "Moors" image, the trees being roughly triangular, as is the cloud formation.
9. Rhythm: Deepdale Avenue. I found it puzzling to try and differentiate between "Rhythm" and "Pattern" – even the dictionary definitions don't really help. I suppose rhythm is a regularly recurring collection of elements in groups, whereas a pattern is more a geometric repetition of one element. Anyway, they seem interchangeable to me! The regularly occurring ornamental trees along this road, and the shadows cast by those on the opposite side of the road, seem fairly rhythmical to me. As the only colour was green, it looks better in grayscale. This would also do nicely for "horizontal/vertical". I used a 100-400mm zoom on the 400mm setting, but no tripod because of the traffic!
10. Pattern: Cypress leaves. The repetitive tiny leaflets, and the repetitive branching made me think of pattern, rather than rhythm. Again, grayscale seemed more appropriate. I used a 150mm macro lens on a tripod.
Ian Glaves.
15.08.2010.
