Elements of design - positioning a point 2

Looking through my photo library, I found a few "single point" subjects. The ones I have selected were of sea birds and dolphins taken in Indonesia.

In the original photographs the creatures were tiny in the frame. I had previously cropped these photographs for use in a photobook of the holiday. For this exercise, I have revisited the composition of these pictures to reconsider the choices I made.

Image 1: Dolphin jumping

I was lucky to catch the moment that this dolphin flung itself out of the water. I selected roughly one third of the original frame, placing the jumping dolphin roughly on the intersection of the thirds in the lower left:-

- I wanted to show the vast emptiness of the sea that the shoal was swimming in so I retained the sea to the far horizon. Similarly, I left space in front of the dolphins to convey the fact that they were far away.

- The other dolphins in the shoal are indicated by the disturbed water to the right of the leaping dolphin.

The horizontal line from the dolphin is therefore fairly tangible. The implied line vertically through the dolphin is not much in evidence.

Image 2: Dolphin jumping

This dolphin leapt out of the water even further away, but the silhouette of the dolphin's body was relatively clear.

This frame represents about one sixth of the original frame:

- Again I placed the dolphin just off centre on the lower third of the frame jumping towards the centre of the frame.

- I left the sea to the horizon in the frame to convey the vast open space. I reduced the space between the viewer and the dolphin to give the single subject more impact.

- There were no other dolphins visible in the original frame, so I cropped to a square format which seemed to suit the upwards stance of the dolphin.

The implied vertical line is more discernible in this picture as angle of the dolphin's body is more upright and the sides of the frame are closer.

Images 3 and 4: Sea eagle and Frigate Bird

The Sea Eagle picture (left) is about one sixth of the original frame, whereas the Frigate Bird picture (right) is just under a half of the original frame.

- In both cases, I placed the birds near the top of a vertical frame to be consistent with the viewers standpoint underneath the birds. The frigate bird is particularly close to the top edge, but I still feel that this is suitable for this subject.

- I placed them just off centre so that the line of movement would stay within the frame

- I left the angle of the wings unchanged. The more diagonal angle of the eagles wing seems to imply a spiral direction of flight, whereas the more vertical line of the frigate bird's wings seems to imply a linear direction of flight.

- The implied vertical and horizontal lines seem more apparent in the frigate bird picture, probably because of the almost vertical position of the wings.