Breaking the Rules with Holiday Items - Emily

Breaking More Rules - Emily

Sunrise? Sunset?

Breaking the Rules - Emily

Our first photos of the year from Emily. Yea!!

Emily says all of these...spread out over the next three posts...are some of her efforts at breaking rules. And she is clear...she loves breaking rules!

First up...some interesting perspective on portraits...

A final shot...

According to Mary Alice, "just too cute to resist!"

Texture - Mary Alice

Lady Gaga by Mary Alice

Lady Gaga's Workshop...

Mary Alice - Different Perspectives

Mary Alice - lights and mirrors

Juanita - Still Life

Working on good composition, Juanita turned in some still life photography. Nice work!

November sharing from Scott

The "Slow" sign spoke to me visually as I walked by it. The familiarity of the sign is something everyone can associate with, however I tried to break the rule of thirds by filling the majority of the space with the sign and cropping off the edges to hopefully create a sense of incompleteness but also left some surrounding details like the overgrown shrubbery to give the viewer a glimpse of it's environment but also wanting to see more. Also took the shot at an angle instead of straight on so the words somewhat trail off and further play with the lines in the shot. The graffiti is a unique marking which gives more detail to the story and I love how the encroaching shrubbery helps indicate that the environment around the sign have "slowed" down.

November with Scott

The underpass...

Bridge/Underpass: Again tried to play with the rule of the thirds as well as lines and angles. Tried create a sense of closeness with the subject as if the viewer is entering the tunnel and the only way out is thru. However the road turns on the other side so there's a sense of uncertainty about entering it and where it goes. The sun was out on both sides of the underpass but i got up close cutting off the light in front of the tunnel which i thought gave depth to the tunnel and the light and scenery at the other end become an additional focal point. Again, the tunnel encompasses the entire photo rather than focusing the subject in one third of the frame. Also tried to play with an angle shot and flipping the picture upside down to give a different perspective!

November continued with Scott

Faces of a feline...

This is my cat Shady : ) "We" lol, attempted breaking the rules on a portrait shot. Again, trying to "get close" and fill the space with part of the subject (the head) rather than see the whole subject (entire body) and focus just a part of it in one of the thirds. Also cropped the picture tightly to take away from the subjects field of vision to leave curiosity with the viewer of what the cat is looking at? I liked how that eliminated other distractions in the shot as well and focused on "ALL" the details in her face. Also experimented with a shot from behind her so we couldn't see her eyes and were left to interpret the story from other factors like her pointy ears, hair, whiskers, body position and direction she is looking. Also thought it would be interesting to take some really close shots so the viewer knew what they were looking at, but only had a "single piece of the puzzle." 

More November from Scott

A variety of views and angles from the tobacco fields...

Tobacco fields: Again trying to break the rules of the thirds. Also playing with angles, natural lines, and the horizon. I really exaggerated the angle of the horizon on a few shots but thought it was interesting how the natural lines of the field, poles, and ropes really kept the picture looking somewhat natural/symmetrical enticing the viewer to really examine the photo to see what was off! Also got really close to one of the poles taking the picture from behind it so it took up some space in the photo drawing the viewer to that initially but is kind of blurry which then leads the viewer to look further down the line of poles which just go on and on and on.

November Portfolio from Scott

Different angles and points of view of the same subject...

More November Photos - John T.

Just a few more as John continues to play with angles, lines, breaking rules, working to balance photos by using the negative space.

Interesting use of lines...and some nice editing to play with colors...

And unusual perspective...interesting lines...and if you look closely, you'll see that the photo is flipped. The floor is on the top. John liked the light working from light down to dark rather than the other way....the way it was naturally.

A nice use of negative space....unusual angle...

Leave a comment. What do you think??

After taking the leaf photos, John had fun playing with some editing processes. Played with some saturation settings, contrast settings, etc. And did a conversion to black and white. And even a reverse image to get that very dark background with the lighter leaf.

Check out the variations. Definitely shows that a photo that John that was a bit blah in terms of color and impact can really be tweaked with just a little bit of editing work. We'll all spend time focusing on some editing techniques later in the year...but feel free to experiment as we go along.

John T - November portfolio

Here is the first photo John took in our challenge for breaking the rules. Leaf on a cloudy day. The attempt here was to play with the Rule of Thirds. Trying to find balance in the photo without actually having anything in the other space to balance. At least not another leaf. Just the texture of the background and the weight of the space.

Thoughts? Comments? John felt like it was a very successful shot. I have to agree. The photo feels very balanced to me. And yet, the leaf is clearly the focal point and it makes a pretty powerful image.