28.02.2012

TAOP Level 4.

Part Two: Elements of Design.

Project: Rhythm and Pattern.

Exercise: Rhythms and patterns.

I have selected two very different photographs to illustrate pattern.  The first is a basket of coloured wools outside a shop.  I have cropped it so that the viewer is not aware as to how many more rows or baskets there may be.  The pattern is regular, broken only by the one green skein that acts as a stop to the eye, in a similar way to the example of the sweeping man on p48 of The Photographer’s Eye.

The second is an example of an irregular pattern.  It is of Hastings Old Town and was taken from high up on East Hill.  I shot it using a telephoto lens to compress distance.  There is no focal point nor any obvious line to lead the eye around the scene.  I cropped it tightly so as to have no visual lead out of the picture.  

The three marching bands were all taken in Nice during the Flower Festival.  They all display both visual, and actual, rhythm.  As can be seen the light was dull and I was having problems with depth of field and motion blur.  Despite these technical faults the pictures give a reasonable feeling of the day.  The way the drummers feet in the first picture are thrusting to the right and the drums are leaning to the left give a feeling of dynamic motion and rhythm.  The other two are not as strong but still have a feel of random pattern and dynamic rhythm.