Assignment 2 - Elements of Design

All of the exercises that formed part of this assignment were rather challenging. Some aspects much easier than others. Seeing shapes and getting them into the frame took time. Rhythm and pattern proved the most difficult with my chosen subject. Triangles were the easiest of the shapes to achieve.
I took loads of pictures of birds. Have been to nearly every park and the zoo. I've been bitten by geese, attacked by swans and had pigeons fly into me.
I've become slightly obsessed with seeing shapes in everything. I would take a lot of pictures and then reread my notes and see I hadn't quite got it right. I tried drawing little patterns to work out how I was going to take some of these shapes with birds. Not very successful either. However I am thinking a lot more about my pictures before I take them.
I found rhythm the most difficult. I'd take pictures of gulls and ducks but wasn't getting the numbers to both fill the frame and give a sense of continuousness.
While I was in Italy for a few days I blagged my way into a nature reserve that was not going to open until the day after I left. I traipsed across muddy wetlands with four men who are volunteers for the reserve. I saw the perfect shot through the powerful telescope of one of these gentlemen. The flamingos had just arrived. They looked stunning. However I don't have a 600mm lens. But, it did give me the idea to go to London Zoo. Not as wonderful as they are on a reserve but at least I could get close enough to take an image, even if there is a fence between us.
This exercise has taught me to look for patterns and shapes in everything. I've also taken on board my tutor's comments to take more time with each subject, to look at it from different angles.
A friend who is a painter had a book on design that inspired me to look at more than photography.
I am now flicking through books on graphic design in the bookshops. I'm noticing ads and posters.
Hopefully my learning will be reflected in my images going forward.

Now the images required for the assignment:

A single Point Dominating the Composition


Two Points

In addition to this image being two points there is also and implied diagonal line formed between the eyes of the geese.


Several Points in a Deliberate Shape
The gulls, geese and coots create a square. This took some time to achieve I might add. All the bird life was annoyed that I didn't have any thing to feed them.


Horizontal and Vertical Lines
The first image has strong vertical lines formed from the girl and the pigeons eating out of her hand and flying toward her. There is also a hint of a horizontal line formed by the heads of the pigeons in the bottom of the frame.
The second image is a strong horizontal line formed by the geese crossing the road. The people in the background appear as both horizontal and vertical lines. The trees also create vertical lines.


Diagonal
A nice diagonal line is created from man and the two geese. I feel it is stronger as the man has one foot in the air as he is walking by as does the goose in the foreground. Would have liked them to both be lifting the same foot but couldn't get that one.


Curves
A curve is created by the extension of the swan's neck and the woman's hand.


Distinct even if irregular shapes
Mating season has given me a few opportunities to get birds in all sorts of shapes. Here the two drakes are battling over a brown duck nearby. Their fighting creates a large circle and the wake around them smaller circles.


Implied Triangles
Here are two implied triangles. The first with the apex at the top created by the eye line of the girl and the two geese.
The second triangle has the apex at the bottom created by a group of several water birds sitting and standing in the water.

Pattern
The continuous pattern of the feathers of a goose show a lovely pattern.

Rhythm
Rhythm should take your eye through the picture. I have taken two images to demonstrate this. The first is a group of gulls who from sitting on the water in the bottom left hand corner of the frame, fly into the air. They are flying towards bread being tossed to them, which is just out of the frame, your eye follows their flight across the image to the right.

The second image I have taken of a group of flamingos with their heads periodically popping up or reaching down to the ground. The continuous flow of the birds with heads up and down almost feels like a beat travelling through the frame.