Assignment One - Contrasts

This exercise is to take pairs of photographs that illustrate contrasting items; large/small, straight/curved etc.

Presented with this challenge I struggled a little at first because it is so out of context of an overall general composition that I would normally start with in my mind.

I decided to select contrasts that have played a part in my year past and capture them in photographs. Once the pictures were taken, I realised that many of the pictures although selected for contrasts according to the pairs stated for the assignment, they represent contrasts in many other ways that I had not noticed before.

1. Black / White  - Coffee

Over Christmas dinner we were discussing coffee and my wife asked for black.  One of our daughters who is currently working for a human rights organisation was somewhat shocked she used the word black.   It sparked a debate as to whether or not this was acceptable.  I live in Dubai where there are human rights issues but the topic of over zealous political correctness never rears its head – it’s a diverse society where colours, religions and traditions all mix, so this topic was long forgotten in my mind.  I found it amazing that the act of ordering a coffee could lead to this and that a simple leap from one world to another can happen when the terms are the same.  

Black

White

Technically, I am happy with these photographs, they look exactly as I had intended.

2. Large / Small - Boats

These shots are taken right outside my window.  The photos show a nice full line of the large boats but a somewhat empty line of the smaller ones.  We looked at buying a boat when we moved to Dubai but with Dubai being what it is, there are lots of the large ones, but hardly any small ones.   Demoralised, we never bothered!  For me, this contrast represents not only the size of boats, but also the divide that exists in Dubai between the extremely wealthy and those that are not.

Large

Small

Technically, the pictures show what I had intended but they are both a bit unbalanced with the subject to one side and a wide expanse of water to the other.

3. Straight / Curved – Abstract Furniture 

Our apartment in Dubai has one huge living space.  We have some very angular furniture in one part of the room and some curved in another.  They are far enough apart that they don’t clash but when put together they don’t go; we spent so long choosing the curved stools that it was disappointing that they don’t go with the rest of the room.  I never really worked out why until this exercise when I was looking at the form of things and it dawned on me the contrast between the two.  Given the revelation, I decided to capture the difference in an abstract form.

Straight

Curved

4. Straight / Curved – A Walk in the Park

I live on the Palm in Dubai and my apartment is right at the top of the main trunk.  Down the middle of the trunk is a park and exercise track.  The trunk is around 2km long and 200m wide so this makes for a very long and straight park that is a nice place to walk.

The park has a track running along its edge.  It is dead straight for the whole 2km and so walking along it seems like a long way.    Next to it there is a curved path that winds its way through plants and water features.  As it isn’t straight, the path is actually longer than the track but walking along this path is enjoyable and does not seem so far at all.

The contrast is straight and curved but there is also a real contrast in terms of the experience in walking along the paths.

Curved

Straight

When editing the straight path, I noticed that in addition to the leading lines created by the edge of the path, there is also a bit of leading line created by the edges of the leaves of the palm tress.  By making the picture square, I was able to get all the lines to converge onto a vanishing point that seemed to add more depth to the picture.  I made the curved picture square to match but it does not have the same dynamism. 

5. Few / Many – Swimming Pool

A big controversy for the year in the residences that we live in is that the complex is owned by a hotel group and they have looked to exploit our area with their other hotel interests.  Where we live is blessed by a beautiful beach and pool and most of the time, this is enjoyed by the residents of our buildings.  However, at busy times the hotel has taken to shipping in residents from their other hotels and this leads to over-crowding (in the minds of us residents at least!).  If you know the area, you can always find a quiet spot away from the bustle of the pool.  The photographs show two things.  1) one area has many people but the other none.   2)  the attractiveness of the two areas is somewhat different.   

These photographs are taken no more than 5 minutes apart but the contrast between the two pictures is stark.  Perhaps for me the contrast is more than what is shown visually.  By the pool feels warm and holiday like, away from the pool feels desolate and detached; the energy between to the two places is astonishing, especially as they are only 50 meters apart.  I hope that the pictures capture this difference

Many 

Few

From a technical point of view.  The poolside picture was taken with bracketing and then I merged the pictures.  For the other picture, I took a single shot and although I have recovered a fair amount of sky, some is blown, I should also have used bracketing or a graduated filter.

6. Still / Moving - Fountain

Where we live there is a huge fountain in the walkway to get to our block and it is made with black stone. 

By night, the fountain is turned on, the stone is covered with water and so its shine reflects the lighting around the area and overall it looks good.   

By day, the fountain is turned off and the result is a very large lump of black stone that is covered with water marks and looks pretty unkempt.  

Still

Moving

Two very different views of the same thing all controlled by the water being still or moving.

7.  Sweet / Sour - Lemons

The theme for both shots is lemon, but that is the only thing common.  The fresh lemons are sour, the lemon sweets are sweet.   What struck me when taking these pictures is that there are so many other contrasts.  Healthy/Unhealthy,  Natural/Processed,  Low Calorie / High Calorie, Self wrapped / packaged.

Sweet

Sour

Such a vast range of contrasts and this exercise really led me to think about how ‘fruit’ sweets are marketed many containing the slogan ‘contains real fruit juice’, when really they are as far away from a natural product as could be.

8. Few / Many - Cranes

In its boom years, it was said that 80% of the world’s cranes were in Dubai.  It is not like that any more although there are still quite a lot around.  I was driving when I noticed this scene and it really reminded me of that time.  Such a vast amount of cranes and sky reaching machinery needed, seemingly in this scene, even for just one building.  It took me back so strongly to the boom years that I decided to capture the scene for this exercise.   

Walking around to capture the above scene, I spotted that there was a singe crane all by itself. and thus acted as a nice contrast.

Many 

Few

Reviewing these picture post capture what strikes me the most is that for the multiple crane scene, it is all about the scene.  There is no real focus on one specific crane, no real specific subject to the composition.  With the single crane, the scene is all about the crane, I managed to capture it so that it soars above and thus emphasis the size of it.

Contrast in one picture:  Small / Large - Cameras

This photograph captures one of the main discussion points related to equipment in the camera magazines.  Large DSLR or small CSC?  In the past six months I purchased the Sony Alpha 6000 CSC seen here to complement my Nikon D800.  

My conclusion is that I enjoy using them both.  I enjoy the control and usage of the DSLR and I enjoy being able to have a camera with me at all times with the CSC.    Yes the controls on the CSC are not quite as accessible and yes the quality of the photographs is slightly lower than the DSLR but these are tiny differences compared to the huge difference in size and therefore the portability.

Large and Small

As is the message of this course,  the equipment is a tiny part of creating outstanding photographs and my conclusion right now is that the grand debate serves only to distract people away from the art of photography.