Our photo group has been doing a ton of challenges lately. I’ll admit to being a bit lazy and have not participated in all of them. But this one grabbed my attention. It is a “creative journey” or skill building challenge for nailing photographic composition created by Photzy. I hadn’t been to their website before and was unsure about how to approach one of the challenges skills so went to their website. I did end up spending a bit of dough there 🙂 Take a look, it’s a great resource!
This is a pretty big challenge; 34 images, each with a different compositional focus, in all. But luckily, we are splitting it up into 11 days. Given that and our current social isolation and physical distancing situation our photos can be taken now or chosen from our archives. I have also done a few things to make this a bit easier for me and you! Such as:
I am only posting a few days at a time… sometimes just 2 days, so that will be anywhere from 6 to 9 photos for each of these posts. I think 34 images in one post would be just a bit much!
I’m going to make only a brief explanation of each skill.
I will make a who what where when explanation of each photo when appropriate.
That’s it… Here is Day 1 and Day 2. Both of these days I was able to establish a theme within the challenge. Day 1 was all current and in B&W and Day 2 was all food related.
Day 1
Shadows can create drama, form and can help the viewer define the story of an image and also help to tell the time of day a photo was taken. This photo represents the deserted nature of our current situation. It was taken March 21, 2020 at St. Patrick’s Island Park in Calgary, typically a very busy park in our city.Leading Lines create a path for the viewer to follow through the subject of the photo. I thought I was getting two sets of leading lines in this image using the bridge and the trees. Again, this photo was taken at St. Patricks Island Park. I hope I nailed it.This was for the Line of Sight skill.In this case I used my subject’s sight line, looking out of the frame at something, but what? It can be used to create mystery or an attempt to encourage curiosity. This man seems to be enjoying his freedom from isolation and the solitude of the park on a sunny day.
Day 2
Depth of Field focuses on what is important in the image and blurs (or bokeh) items in the foreground and or background, it guides the viewer into the image and indicates a stopping point. In this case theses adorable and colourful fancy fruit cups that my nieces and I made for my daughter’s wedding shower were the star of our buffet.Fill the Frame… get up close and personal with your subject so that it stands out. It can be a person, animal, flower or this yummy summer blackberry mojito. Filling the frame makes a clear statement about what the subject of you the photo is all about. If this image had included the table and surrounding restaurant it would no longer be about the cocktail.Okay, I struggled with this one. It is the 2/3 – 1/3 Rule (an offshoot of the rule of thirds). I interpreted it to mean that there would be blank space along 2 sides of my image but in this case I think I may have nailed the 3/4-1/4 rule. This was taken at a Farmer’s Market but I am not sure which one. Most likely it was the Bearspaw FM which is out on Highway 1A between Calgary and Cochrane. I’ve always loved that one.
