Day 128: Lake Photo

Woke up to 75 degrees at 6:00AM here in Chaumont NY. Have been in Syracuse all day, temps close to 90.
Does this photo work for you? If you like it, can you explain why? Can you explain why you do not like it? When looking at photos, especially when you are new to photography, or, if you have been photographing for a long time and are not satisfied with your photos, you should try to identify what it is you like or dislike in a photo. Or in a painting, film, music, what ever. Pin down just what it is that you like / dislike. It's not always obvious. With this photo that there are two things that immediately come to mind that make it work for me: The subject matter and the composition. Subject matter is important, but I believ composition is of greater importance. I think you can make a decent photograph of almost anything if it is composed well.

About Composition

Notice how I have drawn lines in this photo. When I look through the camera I view the scene as an arrangement of shapes. I move the camera around, zoom in or out until I see an arrangement of shapes that works for my eye. The lines illustrate how I saw this scene. There is a distinct line dividing the frame horizontally where the shore meets the water. The main subject matter is the people: those in the water and the kid in the kayak. I moved around until they lined up in the view finder. They are stacked up, like two blocks, the previous line (water meets shore)places them into two seperate compositional blocks. Are you following me?
I was driving when I spotted this scene and quickly got out and began shooting it. There is nothing accidental in the composition. The subject matter was allready in place, all I needed to do was frame it & shoot it. I took a half dozen or so photos, watching the people in the background as they moved, snapping as they did, waiting for the best arrangement of them. The scene ended for me when the boy in the kayak turned around and ended the shoot.

So, in a nutshell, I view the scene before me as shapes created by the natural lines provided by the subject matter in relation to the background. This same group of shapes could be filled with any subject matter & background. It just happens to be what I saw for where I was. I see the world that way. An arrangement of continously moving groups of shapes. That's enough. Gary