Elements of design - relationship between points

Chichester Harbour is a location where I hoped to find suitable subjects for this exercise, such as boats at moorings. As it was low tide in winter, most of the boats were laid up on the mud rather than in the water. It was difficult from eye level to place the boats anywhere but on the horizon. Whilst I liked some of the photographs that I took, I decided that most of these were not suitable for the "Positioning a point" exercise above.

The most suitable subjects I found were a couple of swans by the quayside seen from above.

Image 1: Face to face

The swans are facing each other and the lower edges of their bodies form a gentle curve. The position of their bodies creates a diagonal across the frame accentuated by the small duck on the same line. However, the shadow of the neck of one swan falls between them, curved in the opposite direction. This seems to be a discordant element.

Unusually, the lower swan appears more dominant than the central one. I attribute this to the fact that its face is brightly lit whereas head of the swan in the centre of the frame is shaded. This may be overriding the effect of its position in the centre of the frame.

Image 2: Side by side

In this photograph, the bodies of the swans are almost parallel. There are shadows on the water showing the curve of their necks. The central swan definitely dominates the lower swan in this picture. Again however, I feel it may be the fact that the lower swan's head is underwater and not visible which partly accounts for this.

Reviewing the photographs, I realized that one of the photographs of a boat grounded on the shore is visually a two point subject.

Image 3: Boat on the shore

The boat and the dark trees on the shoreline have a significant relationship. I realized this when I cropped out the right hand side of the frame to place the boat in the centre of the frame. Without the trees, the boat loses its relationship to the scene, and image loses a lot of vitality as can be seen below.

Image 3: cropped version

In the original frame, the eye seems to make a pattern of the stones that stick out of the mud, which adds detail interest. This is also lost when the image is cropped.