Elements of design - Real triangles

Having completed my notes on the studio workshop, I now revert to the photographs I took whilst on holiday in Normandy, France at the beginning of April 2010. I went to the weekly street market in the local town to look for some suitable subjects for the exercise on real triangles. For these notes, I have selected three images of triangular subjects as well as two photographs illustrating the use of perspective to create triangular shapes.

The first photographs I took were of a pair of horses in a field on the way to the market.

Image 1: Two horses

Lens 18 - 70mm at 70mm: Iso 100 f8 at 1/90th

I took several photographs of the horses as they moved around in the field. I chose this photograph as the horses stood close together at an acute angle creating a triangle. I was quite a distance away and needed to crop the photograph quite significantly. In addition to this picture, I also tried a larger crop which included the bodies of both horses. The horses' bodies also formed a triangular shape but the legs and shadows complicated the composition, and I prefer this cleaner composition.

Image 2: Dress display

Lens 18 - 70mm at 18mm: Iso 100 f8 at 1/250th

These dresses were displayed around the rectangular top of a clothes stall. The triangle of the dresses is the dominant visual element. In this wide angle view, however, I note that there is a pattern of three nested triangles. At the bottom of the frame is a triangle formed by the corner of the stall, then there is the negative space of the sky in the same alignment. Finally, the uppermost triangle is the dresses themselves. In contrast to the main subject, there is also an inverted triangle formed by the poles on which the dresses are hung and there are the small but bright triangular flags pointing out of the frame. I think the complex composition in this case works reasonably well probably because the nested triangles reinforce the main visual element.

Image 3: Shirt rack

Lens 18 - 70mm at 50mm: Iso 100 f8 at 1/180th

This photograph of shirts in descending sizes is a much simpler composition. I chose this framing when I took the photograph placing the vertical line of the rack close to the edge of the frame so that only the left hand side of the shirts is included. The impact is created by the pattern of the same style of shirt in descending sizes. I doubt whether the picture would have the same impact if there were mixed shirts on the rack.

Image 4: Cattle pen

Lens 18 - 70 mm at 18mm: Iso 100 f8 at 1/180th

I placed the camera on the ground at its widest setting pointing upwards with the aim of accentuating the receding perspective lines. I took a number of photographs by trial and error, some included the whole gate and others just a part. I preferred this composition showing the gate as a whole as the partial photographs were too abstract. In this photograph, the viewer can see the whole form of the metal framework as well as appreciate its solid construction. The symmetry of the composition is compatible with this sense of strength.

The triangular shape makes the gates stand out towards the viewer. A photograph from a normal viewpoint would have relatively little impact.

Image 5: Rack of leggings

Lens 18 - 70mm at 18mm: Iso 100 f8 at 1/180th

I worked out that a way to make an inverted triangle using perspective was to find a subject which could be photographed from above, so that the most distant point of the subject was at the bottom of the frame. Whilst in the street market, I took a number of photographs of these colored leggings hanging from a low stand at a clothing stall at the widest angle setting of the lens. It took some trial and error to find a position that really accentuated the perspective without unnecessary background. In fact, I cropped the photograph significantly to exclude most of the hangers above and the tarmac below to produce this abstract result. The receding perspective gives the image some vitality and the textures and tones invite the eye to explore the the picture.