Wednesday 4 April 2012

The Frame - Fitting the frame to the subject

Exercise: Fitting the frame to the subject (4 photographs)

For this exercise I went to my favourite part of Devon, Dartmoor. As you would expect the scenery has endless possibilities for the photographer, and I've seen in a whole new way since taking up this course.
I chose to photograph the Cave Penny memorial, which located near to Corndon Tor.


Image 1

Image 1 was taken without much thought to the composition, a 'happy snap' as I would call it, as if someone had jumped out of a car and had quickly taken the photograph. It's an OK shot but not very inspiring. 


Image 2

In image 2 I placed the cross in the middle of the frame and because of this it dominates the photograph, causing viewer to concentrate on it. The crosses at the base of the plinth can be clearly seen, and suggest that due to the poppies on them, that this cross could well be a war memorial. 


Image 3

Image 3, is a close up of the inscription on the base of the cross. The eye is drawn to the flowers on the base, and then to the inscription. Due to the close crop of this photograph, the viewer fails to see where and what sort of memorial this actually is. With only a small area of moorland visible behind the stones, this photograph could have been taken anywhere, this photograph does not nothing to show the surroundings which I feel is paramount for this type of photograph.  




Image 4

In image 4, I chose to place the cross to the left of the centre of the photograph, the eye is drawn to the cross, and as the moorland falls away to the right, the eye then scans to the right and out to open moorland. Indicating that this cross is situated in open moorland. I wanted to the portray to the viewer the relationship between the memorial and the setting. 

The inscription on the bottom of the cross states 
'Look up and lift your heads'

For that reason, image 4 relates in the best way to what the memorial suggests.

Due to the shape of the cross, I had contemplated taking this photograph in portrait, however due to the reasons stated above, I feel it wouldn't have had the same effect as portrayed image 4. 




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