Category: Composition

My friend and I visited the Farmers’ Market one weekend; while he took samples, I took photos! I was taken by the vibrant colors of this bundle of rainbow chard; its texture and shape cause it to almost look like the surface of string cheese when it’s partly eaten from the horizontal. The lines on the vegetable lead out of the frame, toward the top and right of the view, seeming to connect to the red veins on the leaves of the vegetable.

This photo applies the rule of odds in a doubled sense. There is a total number of seven candles in this photo, and they are sorted into three groups at the left, center, and right positions, which have an odd number of candles each. When I look at the photo, my attention is caught by the group of candles in the center, while the other groups create a nice balance. It’s interesting how the leftmost candle is positioned at a higher level than the rest, balancing the slanted angle of the menorah.

Here is another photo that I wanted to share!

This photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/500, an aperture of 5.6, and ISO of 100. I was walking by a fountain after having gotten my first interview recording for the profile documentary project, and my attention was caught by the streams of water shooting up from the fountain’s edges. Water is always great fun to photograph, especially experimenting with different shutter speeds. There are three strands of droplets falling by gravity, about to be swallowed by the black holes below.

This photo, nearly centering around the tree, shows a balance between the negative space offered by the sky and atmosphere, and the solid subject of the grassy hills, the lone tree, and distant masses of darker trees.

For this photo prompt, I felt that I could achieve a good center frame portrait by using subjects such as flowers and shooting down toward the subject. They are naturally suspended, and all the stems are concealed beneath the face of the flower. Although the color burn blend mode might not often be used for maintaining a realistic look, I like how it takes advantage of the graininess from using a high ISO and enhances the shadows to create a pop art element.

Here is another version that looked cool to me! I used a 72% opacity layer of orange color placed below the color burn layer.

The ocean is a fascinating subject to photograph with its infinite range of shapes, textures, and light balance. I took this photo in monochrome mode at a shutter speed of 1/1000, an aperture of 11, and ISO of 100. This view is split into two different regions by the diagonal line formed by the wave, separating them as land and sea, as well as by texture: the foamy remnants on the beach offer a contrast to the dark gravel texture across the open sea.

I’d woken up extra-early for a wrestling weight certification at Saint Francis, and it was still cool and misty when I returned home. I looked up, and I saw in the plum tree branches above my head this massive tangle of strong, white strands forming a spiderweb colony. Dew-drenched lines lead to a center point in each web, and the lines weaving together create heavy visual weight for the viewer. I edited my original photo in Photoshop using an overlay blend mode of 60% and a multiplied layer at 62% opacity.

This photo was taken at a farm which had a strawberry field. My parents and I stopped by after visiting Martin’s Beach and picked strawberries! They were delicious! I took my original photo at a shutter speed of 1/500, Aperture 5.0, and ISO 100. I edited this photo in Photoshop using an overlay blend mode at 39% opacity, with brush strokes to darken the sky.

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Here is another view showing symmetry on the ground. All the rows seem to collect onto a shared horizon line in the distance. My original photo was taken using shutter speed 1/500, Aperture 5.0, ISO 100. I edited this photo using the overlay blend mode at 62% opacity.

It was comforting to see this peaceful stretch of garden. I applied the rule of thirds based on the border of the hedges and bushes in the background, and it forms a shaded rectangle in the center of all the greenery. It feels like I have space to contemplate when I stare into the center point of the rectangle.

Although I used an ISO of 200, higher than necessary for the light setting, the light captured by the shutter was balanced out through using a shutter speed of 1/800. An aperture setting of 3.5 made it possible to create a softened background.