The Ups and downs of Vertical Lines

These travel snaps have all been chosen from a photographic feature point of view as set by Cee’s Weekly Compose Yourself Challenge. This week we are looking at Vertical Lines.

We were challenged to play around with cropping and perspective. That in itself gave me a different perspective and made me think about the photos and why I took them as I did at the time, why I decided to keep them and what I liked about them. Bear with me while I work through my thought process.

I like the vertical bands on the barrels. I almost feel like my eyes roll down the picture. It gives me a sense of rolling barrels. Taken in the Napa Valley.

 

One could argue these lanterns are 2 horizontal lines leading out to the view. Because of the length of th individual lantern, I see them as 7 vertical lines leading me to a drop off point where I suddenly see the scenery. Taken at Shosanji Temple, Himeji Japan.

 

The stairs are very steep and vertical The vertical line is continued by the trees. This photo really accentuates the steepness and climb up to the gate through the vertical lines . Taken At Shosanji Temple in Himeji, Japan.

 

Cropping fun

Original photo

I like the balance of this Photo. My eye is lead by the curve of the flower bed up the stream. I felt I could see a strong vertica line within the picture but it wasn’t strong in this form so I had a play around cropping.

 

The first crop with 3 people doesn’t work. The three people take away from the line of the fence post. They make the eye spread out

The second crop by itself, turns it into a “nothing Photo” It jus looks like the scraps or off cuts.

After trimming the lady on the left out, the third crop works as a vertical line for me. The pole, the woman and man line up nicely and add form a nice line while still telling a story of a couple enjoying a day out viewing the flowers. Actually looking at now I am tempted to go back and trim the bottom so it starts with the line of three purple Iris.

Comparing a series of photos taken in same area but different perspectives

The foxgloves are long flowers. These first two shots don’t really utilise the vertical line in any way. The line of the flower doesn’t draw my eye anywhere. They are simply a shot of some purple foxgloves and a wide angle scenery shot ( A very beautiful one taken in NZ on the Arthurs Pass in the South Island)

These 2 shots have quite a different perspective and do use the vertical line of the flowers to good effect.

To me this is a shot of the flowers. By getting low their length is emphasised and it is further enhanced by the fact the towering mountains in the backrground are out of focus, are slightly over exposed and take up less than half of the shot.

This second shot to me is more of the mountains with the long narrow foxgloves in the foreground leading my eyes up to them.

Hope your week has more ups than downs and you have enjoyed these shots.

Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu

Leanne