Curves

Curves


I've taken many photographs showing curves- sea shores being a prime example, but never looked for curves as in the example in the Course folder - seeing circles in a photograph, where I would only have seen a tree and figures (P66 Exercise: Curves). I want to look now through my own photographs to see whether I have unwittingly used curves myself.
I've found lots of examples of curves taken whilst working for this course, but think they were all deliberate shots with the curves a known part of the image.


Most of my first assignment work was done at Cesar Manriques home in Lanzarote. This view of a spiral staircase taken from above was one of the photographs taken there. Taken in very bright light,the shining white floor provides a background to the stone walls and the highly polished wooden treads.

Whilst walking along the coastal pathway in Lanzarote, I saw several of this style of structure - strong dry stone lava walls in beautiful curves, with fairly ugly concrete struts joining the inner and outer walls at the top. I passed them several times without even thinking them worthy of photography. What made these so photogenic was seeing them at the right time of day when the sun was in the right position, creating dramatic sweeps of shadow on the walls and the ground beneath.

As a complete contrast to the previous 2 manufactured curves, the next image was taken in my garden on a bright day . I used an image of the wisteria in the Contrasts assignment and this was taken on the same day. One stem of the plant protrudes from the others and its blossom forms a graceful curve as it arches out and downwards. More fronds form curves in the background.

For my fourth curve, I'm returning to manufactured things.

There are many curves in this photograph: the wheel arch, the tyre, the handle, the air vent and the stripes. The curve of the air vent matches the curve of the door edge; the wheel, tyre and wheel arch curves match each other. The strong sunlight makes splashes of reflection and some shadows. Black and white make strong contrasts. The only straight lines are diagonal within the air vent and the edge of the frame.

Diagonal Lines

Diagonal Lines

I recently visited The Anderton Boat Lift and took photographs of the structure as it is full of lines in all directions. It was a dismal day, cold, damp and windy, but somehow that emphasises the architectural drama of the site. Although the major framework is of vertical and horizontal lines, the decorative inner diagonals in white form crosspieces  to reinforce the structure. In addition, some of the outer struts are leaning in as diagonals.

Working on my Horizontal/Vertical lines project during my recent visit to London, I guessed that Diagonals might well be the next exercise. I took this photograph just in case! It was  a very sunny afternoon and the whole building reflects the light. The diagonals are a major feature of "The Gherkin"  , both in the diamond patterns and the differently coloured diagonal bands.


Crossing The Thames on the new footbridge, I tried a shot which would be part of the Horizontal lines project, but could not get the correct angle. Consequently, the shot is used here as an example of diagonal lines, as the steelwork, although horizontal in fact, looks diagonal in the image.

The steel runs diagonally from bottom left to top right. The handrail is also just in the shot forming a diagonal in the bottom right hand corner.

This fourth image has several diagonals leading from bottom left to the top right hand corner, where a different diagonal meets  from the bottom right. The sunlight makes the white edge at the bottom of the photograph somewhat overexposed, but also creates a diagonal between light and shade across the image. The splash of red also directs the eye to the top right of the photograph. .

Project: Lines

Lines
In this exercise, I have taken photographs on a visit to London, looking for horizontal and vertical lines, where the line is the most important and obvious part of the photograph. There were many buildings where vertical lines were easy to find, but it was harder to find 4 different subjects for the examples.


Vertical lines

Pillars on Whitehall.
Many buildings in this area of London have colonnades and I thought this one of the better examples.  Even behind the pillars, there are other vertical stone structures.








The soldiers on parade at horse Guards were awaiting inspection on a hot, sunny afternoon. Their bodies form strong vertical lines, their swords are raised and even the scabbards hang in vertical lines.

The third image is a rear view of the inspecting officer. The plumes on his helmet make bold, dramatic red verticals. I cropped this photograph so that the plumes are the prime subject of the shot. It was difficult to achieve the photograph with the crowd of people watching the ceremony.

Finally, a stand of silver birch trees on the South Bank near The Globe gave me the fourth vertical subject. The trunks are slender, white and very straight. The foliage is delicate so the trunks can be seen almost to the top.

Horizontal Lines


A bench in Kensington Park Gardens has striking horizontal support bars across the back.                                                                                   
                                                                   

A moorhen nests on a floating platform on an ornamental lake. The horizontal line of the edge of the lake works as the horizon at the top of the picture.

  

The Globe is a myriad of lines, horizontal, vertical and diagonal, but in this photograph of the interior, horizontal rows of railings mark the edges of each layer of seating.

This photograph of part of the walls of Buckingham Palace features very strong horizontal lines in the stonework.

I found this exercise very interesting, choosing various subjects, but had problems with the blog page. I had tried to put all the photographs in as inserts after doing all the writing, but had so many problems that I had to revert to one piece of text followed by one image. I spent more time producing the blog  than the rest of the exercise. Hopefully I won't make the same mistake again and will not waste so much time.