Exercise: Object in different positions in the frame

The idea is to think about the "purpose" behind the placement of the subject in the frame. As Freeman states (1)..."placing the subject anywhere but in the natural position (ie the centre of the frame for most people) needs a reason".

The exercise required 4 photographs to be taken of a subject within a large, even background. I had an idea of a statue @ the Auckland Museum - the only drawback was I also had a tree in the viewfinder. However, I thought the challenge here was to learn about placement and how to frame a subject - I want to be able to do this in any situation, so I perservered with my chosen subject.

Photograph 1 -

I took this shot without thinking too much about placement. When I considered the series of shots, I felt that this shot did  not work because of the position of the large tree on the right hand side.  I could have shot this from the otherside, but I was presented with the same problem, buildings and trees in the background. This is my least favourite.

Photograph 2 centre

I stepped back a bit, and framed the statue slightly better in the viewfinder, albeit, in the centre. I am reasonably happy with this shot because  the top of the statue represents the top of a triangle and the tree which was bothering me in the earlier image, does not usurp the view as much. Freeman, points out that generally a placement in the centre is too stable, it does not have any dynamic tension and some off centeredness is required to set up a relationship between the subject and its background (2)

Photograph 3 to the right

I wanted to see if I could create a feeling that the bird was flying into the frame. The statue was on a hill, so I have a bit of a diagonal from the left, and I placed the statue to the right to set this off.  I think I have too much foreground in this shot though.

Photograph 4 to the left

I placed the statue to the left.   Again, I think the large tree ruins the shot.  There is possibly movement from the left to the right - a diagonal from the tail of the statue crossing to the lower right hand corner. I do feel as if the bird is flying in from the left and is on a journey through the frame.

I took some vertical shots of the statue - on reflection, I think the horizontal frame works best because the statue needs some of its surroundings to make sense of the movement through the frame.

I have been reflecting on the differences between the placement of a subject in the viewfinder and what "composition" means.  Hopefully, I will touch on this more - from some of the photograhpic journals I have read so far, "framing" has almost nothing to do with "compositon".  I hope to explore this further, as I progess to achieving my "photographer's eye".

(1) (2) Freem, Michael, (2007). The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos, The Ilex Press