Elements of design - Rhythm and pattern

I went to the RHS gardens at Wisley on a sunny day last week, partly as I hoped to find neatly planted rows of vegetables suitable as subjects for rhythm and pattern and partly to reconnoitre the gardens as a location for the second assignment.

The vegetable gardens were being dug up at the present time so I looked elsewhere for repetitive shapes that would be suitable subjects for this exercise.

The racks of seeds in the gardening shop caught my eye as a way to illustrate pattern in composition. Following the guidance in "The Photographer's Eye" I took photographs ranging from a large number of seed packets down to a relatively small number. For this subject, the photographs with fewer packets seemed less successful because the viewers attention was drawn to the writing and pictures on the individual packets. I therefore preferred the photograph with the large array of packets. The writing on the individual packets is small when viewed on screen. Consequently, the impact of the pattern is accentuated relative to the identity of the items.

Image 1: Seed packets

Lens 18-70 mm at 18mm: Iso 320 f8 at 1/160th

There is no dominant point of visual interest and the eye seems to wander up and down over the various packets, which are quite interesting.

I thought that photographing the packets from the front was rather flat and lacking in impact. I also experimented with taking the same array of packets from a low viewpoint to add some perspective and depth.

Image 2: Seed packets low viewpoint

Lens 18 - 70mm at 18mm: Iso 200 f5.6 at 1/500th

From this viewpoint, the fronts of the seed packets are catching the light from a skylight, and we see the dark shapes of the lower edges of the packets on the rack. The contrast makes the photograph stronger graphically than the photograph taken at normal eye-level. In addition, I believe that the viewer may not immediately grasp what they are looking at because of the unaccustomed viewpoint. This hopefully is slightly intriguing for the viewer. There is a regularity of the items in the frame, but the shapes and shadows are quite irregular in size and grouping. The shadows do not seem to coalesce into recognizable shapes. The effect is slightly reminiscent of some cubist art where there are shapes and shadows which appear to have depth, but they do not portray a coherent solid form.

As with image 1, I took some photographs with a smaller array of seed packets, but on subsequent review, I preferred the photograph with a wider array.

In addition, I looked back through the photographs that I have taken since the beginning of the year to identify anyones where I thought pattern played a significant role in creating the composition. There was one particular photo of fish on a counter in the market in Abu Dhabi. I selected this image as a "pick" in February soon after returning from that holiday in February. At that time, I did not identify what had made this photograph catch my eye.

Image 3: Hamour fish for sale

Lens 18 -70 mm at 27 mm: Iso 800 f7.1 at 1/20th

Although the viewers attention is drawn to the largest fish in the right foreground, there is a pattern of the shapes and the highlights that attract the viewer's eye upwards into the upper half of the image frame.

Unexpectedly, I had more difficulty in finding subjects in Wisley Gardens where visual rhythm contributed to the composition. Reviewing the photographs subsequently, it was this photograph of chestnut leaves that I felt best embodied this concept.

Image 4: Chestnut leaves

Lens 18 - 70mm at 70mm: Iso 800 f11 at 1/160th

The leaves were catching the sunlight with a background of a dark conifer. I hesitated initially about categorizing the leaves as representing a visual rhythm. However, having revisited this photograph over a number of days, I now see that the diagonal repetition of the branches and leaves which creates this sense of rhythm.

In addition, I again revisited my previous photos to see if there were others where this rhythm appeared to be in evidence. The photograph where rhythm seemed strongest is this:

Image 5: Laid up boats (flipped version)

Lens 18 - 70mm at 18mm: Iso 250 f16 at 1/125th

I commented on this photograph before in my blog on Elements of Design - Diagonals (April 14th 2010). The horizontal repetition of the laid up boats seems to create a visual rhythm, with the dark toned boat adding visual interest to the otherwise light colored line-up.