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Saturday, December 26, 2015

Travel Photograph Winners: patterns and contrasts

If you have a landscape photo, try to find a person or animal to add foreground interest, or a group to form a pattern int he background.

1 Simple frames
A simple frame for a photo subject is an arch from architecture or an arch from a tree or plant. Some examples are:
a person standing in a doorway in front of an open door;
an animal beneath a low tree branch or bush,
a plant pot centred on a windowsill with the arch above it;
a diamond or other pattern on a trellis framing a site;
an arch for a bride constructed from palm branches, swords, guns;
a baby under an arch created from the arms of toddler siblings or parents.

Information Photos
An artistic photo is not the same as an informative photo. I usually look for both. I need the opening times of the bank, the name of the hotel, also the decorative lamp-post. The free offer may be of interest to me or the readers.

I often take a photo of a menu, or a member of staff. Here I have combined the two.


People Pictures
When I first started doing photography I avoided taking people. They would move and create blur and shut their eyes. They would insist on being photographed with four others, creating an uncontrollable jumble.

They would phone back and tell me they did not want their photo published. Clothes would date the picture. However, the dated photo can be used in a contrasting pair, then and now. Or a nostalgic piece: our city in the Fifties; the old pub, now demolished.

However, if you take photos with and without people you have a choice.

People Patterns
Basic common sense tells you to get the smaller people at the front so the taller ones don't block the view of those in second and third rows. However, if you have time, you can arrange groups in additional patterns, such as tallest in the centre, taping off. VIPs would normally stand or sit in the middle. If you look at turn of the century wedding photos, where everybody has to sit still, the photographer carefully arranges the bride and groom in the front row, often on chairs, with others standing around, and children cross legged on the floor at the front.

Clothing colours can form another pattern. People tend to stand beside or behind animals. If you have low light, you can get effective silhouettes of people or statues against sunsets and twilight skies.

The modern trend for competitions is to like an animal or person in the foreground, the more unusual the animal or the human and their costume, the better.

If you see a reflection in a mirror or pond or any kind of glass or water, look for something very local or very unusual, or a pattern, to make an unusual picture. One of my favourites is the row of trees which reflected in water creates the image, the outline of a guitar lying sideways.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-35135516?post_id=10155595000985597_10156363976110597#_=_

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

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