Sequence of Composition

For this exercise i chose a patch of forest at a local countryside park as my area to find a subject. I liked the lighting through the thin canopy, casting interesting shadows and the colour of the leaves on the ground. There were also interesting shaped to be found in the trees.

Below is the sequence of images i took. I started by finding something interesting and using the viewfinder from this point to find an interesting composition. The subject did change several times during the sequence but was still the same area of landscape.

This tree is the one with the swing attached to it. From here i took several shots of the swing, varying the composition and below are the results that i came up with. I decided that this would be the final subject for my composition. Below are some of the shots i took. Some are in Black and white because i felt the images worked better and were more striking than the colour versions.


This was probably my favourite image of the sequence. There is interesting in the foreground and the swing is the obvious subject, the background is busy without being too destracting and the monochrome effect adds an almost sinister mood to the shot. I did not process the shot at all other than the black and white conversion as i tried to incorporate what i had learned from looking at the photographs of wildlife photographer Andy Rouse (www.andyrouse.co.uk) He managed to capture his subject, in it's surroundings while making it prominant and without making the background too destracting. He also uses almost no post processing.



In this shot i attempted a more close up shot of the rope where it is knotted. I liked the way the light shone through the thin strands of frayed rope and was happy with the composition, however i found it too dark and did not like how destracting the background was.



A more close up shot of the rope, with a more cental composition. Again i felt the background was too busy here.



For the penultimate image i tried a more energetic angle for the composition. I think the angle worked to separate the subject further from the background and i liked the shadows that crossed the image. This made for a very strage image.



This is the final image in the sequence and at this point i had established that shooting in portrait was the best way to capture the swing. The background is nicely out of focus and i liked the black and white conversion. The composition felt balanced but i didn't like how the vertical rope lost it's impact to the verticals of the trees in the background.

If this exercise has taught me anything, it is that a picture is made or destroyed by the photographers ability to compose the frame correctly. This is a very important part of photography, and even though my final images weren't incredible, i feel that i understand the importance of using the viewfinder to compose the scene.