Elements of design assignment 2: Distinct shapes

Image 19: Fruit trees in blossom

Lens 18-70mm at 46 mm: Iso 160 f 8 at 1/320th

At Loseley House, they have some avenues of fruit trees pleached together to form arches between the trees. I noticed that this resulted in triangular spaces when viewed in the right place between the arch on one side and the flat top of the parallel row of trees. The trees were in full blossom, and I took a number of photographs of the triangular spaces.

As a visual subject, the symmetrical triangular space surrounded by blossom is a curiosity, but of limited visual interest. It was not readily possible to modify the viewpoint to improve the composition as the triangle was only visible from a particular viewpoint.

Instead, in the photograph I have chosen here, there is a stray branch standing out into the triangular space. This appears to be more interesting visually, as the triangular shape is less obvious. The eye seems to search a little around the frame before the shape is recognized.

Image 20: Crown of young tree fern sprouts

Lens 70-210mm at 116mm: Iso 1000 f 16 at 1/160th

I photographed the young sprouts on this tree fern in the gardens at RHS Wisley. The tree ferns were growing under the canopy of larger trees, but the dappled afternoon sunlight was just catching the young sprouting fronds. I was attracted to the spiral shapes and bristly texture of the plant.

I used my telephoto zoom lens to obtain a narrow field of view as the background was for the most part quite bright with only small darker areas. Even so, I needed to reduce the brightness of one of the central leaves in the background in Photoshop. The background foliage was a long way behind the tree fern and so it is quite blurred and indistinct.

I chose this particular photograph as two fronds on the left and two on the right can be seen sideways on so that the tight curled up spirals are visible and there is balance between right and left. The shape seems reminiscent of a royal crown engraved with decorations and faceted jewels.

There is a lot of visual detail in this picture, as well as the overall shape. The spirals have a fibrous surface, small leaves are starting to appear, and at the base of the frame there is a mass of coarse fibres with small highlights.

Image 21: A spiral nebula of a million stars?

Lens 70-210mm at 145mm: Iso 800 f 16 at 1/90th (tripod)

I photographed this cactus in the greenhouse at RHS Wisley. At first glance, it was some little pink flowers on a grey green plant which drew me to look more closely at this plant. In black and white however, it is the beautiful pattern of little white star shapes radiating from the centre of the plant surrounded by concentric tone circles. A closer look reveals that the tonal gradation arises from the spacing of hundreds of small pyramid shapes again appearing to radiate from the centre of the plant.

The astronomical analogy struck me having seen the enigmatic first photograph in the series by Frans Lanting "A journey through time" for Life. His photograph has a similar radial composition starting with a light centre, surrounded by a surface of multicoloured hues and straight lines radiating from the centre. He uses this picture to portray the birth of the universe as described in the Big Bang Theory. The actual subject he photographed is given by the photograph's title "Petrified Wood, Arizona". This maybe illustrates how powerful and mysterious an allegorical meaning can be.

In the case of my own photograph, this cactus is, I believe, a popular subject for many photographers visiting RHS Wisley. The off-centre composition and viewpoint from directly above are not unusual. I feel however that the picture in black and white still has reasonable visual strength, both the initial impression of the concentric circles of tone inviting the viewer to examine the small stars and shapes around the plant.