When I am photographing, I always keep my eye out for strong shapes since they tend to lead to strong compositions. Any shape will do: circles, squares, triangles, curves.
During my last visit to Joshua Tree National Park in California, I went back to a place I had been before, Jumbo Rocks, where there are all kinds of interesting rocks to photograph. But there was one rock in particular that intrigued me: a round rock balancing between some diamond shaped rocks. You can see my first photograph of it here.
Building on the shapes idea, I like to photograph what I think of as the echo of a shape. That’s where your main subject is a particular shape and then there is something in the background that is the same shape. This isn’t a formal type of composition or anything! I just got this idea while thinking of music one day and how the chorus is repeated, and I wondered if I could do that in photography by repeating shapes.
I had great fun scrambling over the rocks trying to find one that was just the right shape where I could put my original subject in the background.
Please click the images to view a larger version.
To me, this photo is more interesting than the original because of the repeating shape.
Later, I found a third rock to put in front.
I can never decide which one I like best!
Very intriguing photos! It looks other worldly with alternating shapes towering upwards and the sky like that! Thanks for sharing these!
Beautiful pictures!
Just found your blog.
Really great!
really good photos i like the 2nd one best it looks like a scene out of a star wars film.
Excellent examples, Anne, of an interesting composition. The third shot is my favorite.
Both are awesome. the horizontal shot (landscape) is very powerful with the shapes. The vertical shot (portrait) works equally as well with the nice diagonal with the rocks and the cloudy skies. Hum! My choice, the portrait. I works better for me due to the skies.