It’s amusing to watch your own progress with a pastime, hobby, or even a skill. I was new to creative photography until a few years ago and set about it with the usual Gemini enthusiasm.
It doesn’t take long before you’ve taken hundreds of shots, some of them credible renderings of beautiful things – like our local River Kent, or buildings, or even skies – which seem so ‘big’ in this Cumbrian landscape…
But after a while, it’s other things that capture your attention, often unexpectedly.
Currently, my ‘eye’ is drawn to what I think of as ‘lines on stone’. The above monochrome image is an example. The symmetry of the lines of solid railings, merging into the curves at the end of the jetty is fascinating.
I have set of software filters that enhance the monochrome and give it soft edges and a dreamy look. The distant line of bright clouds on the horizon helps pull the eyes beyond the end of the structure. Above all, the brightness of the foreground rail draws your interest into the picture.
Your eye becomes trained in hunting out what you might find attractive. Often, I will take a shot without knowing why I find it interesting – but knowing that I do.
Later, sometimes on magnifying the image, I find what it was that the mind saw; as though it has its own grasp of interesting patterns and symmetries.
We just need to develop it…
I think I’ll call this one ‘End of the Line’. Double-meanings can be fun.
©Stephen Tanham 2022
Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye, a journey through the forest of personality to the dawn of Being.
http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog
Really interesting post, Steve. Photographically, if this image of a jetty is anything to go by, you have what’s known as a ‘good eye’. But I hope you don’t mind my warning you not to spend too much time thinking about it. It’s a gift, an instinct – you either have it or you don’t. Read books about it, try analysing and ‘understanding’ it and you run the risk of confusing your own talent. The balance you have in this image is just right. A common error would be to situate the top border just fractionally above the tops of the white clouds, omitting the dark sky above. Like that, a vital element in the pictorial impact would be lost. Another common mistake would be to place the light coloured pipeline right down the centre of the frame, wrecking the balance. Really good photo.
Thank you, Besonian! Really appreciated. I take the point about over thinking…