Project: Balance

It's been a couple of months since my last entry - a few family problems to deal with.  Hopefully now I can pick up and get on with the course.

Balance has proved to be more complicated than I originally thought it would.  I have been looking back through the pictures that "work" for me over the last few years, and have found it difficult to pick out the balance in many of the pictures even though they are some of my favourite photos.

While I originally made choices about whcih photos to use for this assignment, I kept finding myself re-examining them over and over.  This was because I was trying to decide whether I was choosing these pictures because they were balanced, or because of the frame position, because of the Rule of Thirds for example.

The photos that I picked are included below.

This photo balances in two ways -firstly the symmetrical aspect of the picture and also with the central location of the colour surrounded by the white of the petals.

I feel that this photo balances well as it has three distinct areas and the groups of zebra balance across the image.  There is also distinct areas of contrast between the lake and the foreground.

In this image, the balance is achieved with the bright sunlit leaves on the tree and the shaded areas in the bottom portion of the picture.  Using the "Weighing Scale" interpretation would have two equal weights equidistant from the middle of the scale.

This picture is similar to the Orchid picture above.  It is symmetrical around the elephant.

I feel that these pictures are balanced, but some are also examples of the Rule of Thirds and implied triangles, both of which help to make a photo "pleasing" to look at.

Balance is definitely something that needs to be looked at during the coming assigments and I will be continuing to look at how my photos balance to aid the way that I look at potential subjects.

Photography Sites of the Week - Daily Telegraph

One of the ways that we can learn in photography is through looking at other photographers work, be it at exhibitions, through the magic of the internet, or through books.

Living in Jakarta, there aren't that many galleries so the internet and books are my main sources.  I have recently discovered that The Daily Telegraph has a page called Photography Sites of the Week.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/6515582/Photography-sites-of-the-week.html

This page is dedicated to finding "..interesting, inspiring or amusing sites and stories related to photography."  I've just started looking at the sites as it goes back to November 9th 2009 so there are quite a few to look at.


This week it is dominated of course to the Haiti earthquake and its awful aftermath.  The pictures say more than any of the news reports could ever do - as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

My hat goes off to those photographers working in disaster areas or war torn countries.

It's been a bit slow...

I have to admit, that over the last couple of weeks I've been struggling to get on with the course.  I'm due to be submitting my first project to my tutor in the next week or so, having delayed it already.

I'm hoping that now the new year is here that I can get stuck in to everything again.

On the recommendation of another student I invested in The Genius of Photography by Gerry Badger so will be tucking into that over the coming weeks.

My wife also bought me "In Focus - National Geographics Greatest Portraits" for Christmas which is full of amazing pictures and comments from some of the best Nat Geo photographers, so that will be another source of inspiration.

I think that the biggest inspiration I get is from other people telling me that they like my photos - that is what gets me to carry on, so long may it continue!!!!

Exercise: A sequence of composition

For the latest exercise we had to find somewhere with lots of people.  Whilst on holiday over Christmas, we visited Candi Prambanan which is a large Hindu temple in south central Java.  It was full of tourists, both foreign and domestic, so definitely fitted the profile of the exercise.

Even being surrounded by lots of people who weren't looking at me, I felt very self conscious as I was sure that everyone would notice that I wasn't pointing my camera at the other tourists rather than the temple.

However I got on with it and in the end realised that I was as invisible as everyone else.

I looked around for stories in the crowd and found various families walking around with children that looked very bored, and they made some interesting subjects, but I felt uncomfortable shooting them, and I won't be posting the pictures from those series, but I do have them for my records.

Eventually, I did realise that there was a story going on there.  There was a man there selling information leaflets about the temple, and he looked lost inside this sea of people.  I originally noticed him during one of my wide angle shots of the area, talking to a young lady with her child.  Centering on him I moced closer and zoomed in.  However I was in the wrong position to get any close up shots, as the general movement of people was coming towards me, so I decided to move to the other side of the temple.  This not only put me in position so that he was facing me, but also gave me a bit of cover to shoot from.

The change in position worked well as I was able to get some shots of him looking a little lost in the crowd.  Eventually he was approached by a family who wanted to buy the leaflets and I was able to get a shopt of the transaction actually taking place.  The pictures show that the temple, whilst an interesting place to visit is also the way that some of the local people earn their living and are able to support their families.