Thought for the Week

"A hug is a perfect gift - one size fits all and nobody minds if you give it back."
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Panoramic Views

One week to go!

Just one week left to finish my exam work and complete my sketch book.

I have finally chosen and printed the half dozen or so photographs that I now have to mount and am at last feeling slightly less stressed by it all.

Not that I have stopped worrying about getting it done in time, but at least I feel I am much closer to achieving my goal now I have made some decisions on which photographs to include.

Any long term readers will know that I have been doing a photography course for the last year, and from some of the images I have shared, I guess it's obvious that one of my favourite places to photograph is the Royal Military Canal at Hythe. I shared some of my photographs and a little of it's history in an entry out of at the beginning of my course

This place is just so beautiful, it never fails to touch me. No matter what time of year you visit there are gorgeous colours lining the banks of the canal and plenty of wildlife. During the summer months there are little boats that you can hire for a trip up the canal at a relaxing, sedate pace as you watch the hullabaloo of the town.

The ducks will come and feed from you, in fact, they are so used to people on the banks meaning 'dinner is served' that they will make a beeline for you. They have to fight the seagulls off of course, but that's the drawback of being near the sea I guess.

For my exam pieces, I am required to photograph in the style of the Alexander Rodchenko, a Russian photographer involved in the Constructivism movement, who was famous for using 'strong diagonals' in the composition of his work.

Once again visited the canal for inspiration.

This is one of many shots I took, and once I had done a little work in Photoshop, the colours were slightly more vibrant than this.

Whilst working through all the shots, deciding which to use, G said he thought it would be great to have a panoramic shot of the canal.

Now he tells me!

So, in the absence of photographs shot purposely to 'stitch' together he suggested I flip this photograph and sit them back-to-back!

He's a genius! I knew I married him for a good reason.. lol

Photoshop, here I come! I wasn't sure if the theory would work, or even which sides to butt together to make the best panoramic photo, so in my natural 'cover all the angles' attitude, I tried both ways.

I didn't have the photographs at work to show you, so I have taken these directly off a Word Document, I hope the quality is not too bad.

The first attempt was strange, in a weirdly interesting kind of way.

Putting them back-to-back in this way produced an island effect in the middle of a very wide canal. I liked the shot though. I liked it because of the weird tree right on the vanishing point. The hovering tree, large in scale by comparison and eyecatching.

The original has this tree in the foreground, which is why it is large, but stitching the two halves together like this made it a background feature...

... my somewhat strange sense of 'interesting' is very pleased with the resulting questions the brain asks when it views it.

Stitching the photograph together with the alternate edges produced a very different result, and one more suited to my exam entry I think.

I love it.

Initially it is not so obvious that it is a mirrored image. Planting on river banks is often symetrical. The little duck, not very visible at this size, who has just clambered out of the water, leaving a circle of ripples behind, gives the game away.

10 comments:

Elaine Denning said...

You're right...he's a genius!
I absolutely love that second one Ali...(even though the tree in the first one is amazing.) I would never have thought of doing that. Now I have to go and play with all my pictres, lol. I blame you entirely!

Do we get to see all the other pictures you're using for your exam? I can't wait.

By the way...haven't you ever seen two ducks waddling in symetry?

And another thing. Does symetry have a double m? Cos I copied you, and it looks weird!!

Hope you're having a good day. x

Ali said...

Miss U ~ I want to see the results of your play time - well the photos anyhow!

Do you want to see the other pictures too then? I can blog them if you like.

Yes, thank you, deep gratitude for pointing out my spilleng misstikes.. symmetry is spelt with double m!!! lol. I spelt it double, thought it looked wrong and took one out, knew it was wrong then, but forgot to put it back!!!!

Hugs x

In Ink said...

I never would have thunk that I'd meet so many talented photographists on the bloggernet...and yet here I am again admiring another blogist's work.

Great stuff! Post more!!

Mike said...

The second picture definitely works much better and I like it.

I was trying to work out what I didn't like so much about the first picture and I've decided it's the tree in the middle. It probably would have worked better for me if there'd been half a trunk in the original photo.

I must start taking my camera out on my bike with me and look for opportunities instead of just snapping snapshots without any thought into the composition. Time to get creative. It's your fault you know lol.

Would love to see the rest of your pics :)

Oh and before I go, your husband came up with a very clever idea.

IT Barman said...

Some great pics there Ali, you definitley have an eye for some great pics. Good luck with finishing the rest of the work off

Ali said...

Michael ~ Thanks for the compliment. Do you have ANY idea how dangerous it is to ask for more in the same sentence as photographs...lol...

Don't say you weren't warned.


Mike ~ The second picture works beautifully, but I like the hovering tree. I did copy and paste a part of one of the branches to make a trunk,but didn't like it!!

Go on... get creative.. I don't mind taking the blame at all.

IT ~ Thanks honey, I'm sure I will get done in time, just!lol

Dan said...

Hi Ali! You are very talented. And your husband had a good idea. If you don't like so much symmetry (I think it's fine the way it is), you can always change one or both sides a bit so that they don't look so similar. This involves a few more tricks from the Photoshop book, but it is possible.

Thanks for checking up on me last week. That was very sweet of you!

Ali said...

Dan ~ I love it just the way it is, I think it's fab. I mounted it last night, (NO, I framed it!!), and it looks even better now.

It's good to see you back in the swing. x

C Brow said...

I love the wine glass pic. Very creative!

Ali said...

CB ~ Glad you liked my creation. I like it because its different, I saw lots of pictures of the glass tilted and the wine level, but that was too obvious, so this was a 'twist' on that.