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Author Topic: Church Caretaker, Family and Friend  (Read 1904 times)

Ray

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Church Caretaker, Family and Friend
« on: November 01, 2014, 11:38:32 pm »

At first glance this latest image from Michael on the home page seemed very ordinary; basically just a mother, two kids and dog, doing nothing special.

However, on second thoughts, the relationship and positioning of certain key elements within the composition began to appeal to me. For example, the pitch fork over the woman's shoulder, on the far left of the image, mirrors the vertical lamp post in the top right corner.

There is an approximately diagonal line which includes all faces, leading from the woman's face, upper left, to the dogs face, lower right. The fact that the woman appears to be looking directly at the dog reinforces this diagonal effect.

Also, it is unusual to have a major focus of interest in the extreme corner of an image (the dog's face). That's certainly breaking the rule-of-thirds. Yet this effect works well in this case, and balances the entire composition.

I'd say this is an excellent example of how to make an ordinary scene interesting.
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Jim Pascoe

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Re: Church Caretaker, Family and Friend
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2014, 04:36:33 am »

It doesn't work for me.  The content is very interesting and technically it's fine.  But I cannot see the attraction to this composition.  I absolutely looks as if the camera was on a tripod and the shutter was fired too late!  There is nothing in the top right of the picture which adds to the story that I can see.  So if it is a church, it's not obvious in the picture. I'm not a 'rules' kind of photographer - but this feels wrong to me.

Of course this is only my view and knowing the excellence of most of MR's work I'm sure he has his reasons for presenting the picture as it is!

Jim
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OldRoy

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Re: Church Caretaker, Family and Friend
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2014, 09:34:47 am »

An example of something that, compositionally, can equally be considered interesting or incompetent, depending on the context of its origination and presentation.
Roy
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cottagehunter

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Re: Church Caretaker, Family and Friend
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2014, 06:59:06 pm »

okay so where do I find the picture you are discussing

Pierre
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