After a very useful chat with my tutor I am now better prepared for addressing this exercise. I at first, was confounded in how to approach this.
In considering a spot and it’s place in the frame I look at the picture in the course notes for the exercise; the cup under chair. This leads me to think that there is a narrative at play here which adds a dimension to the composition. Someone has sat on that chair and drunk from that cup, lazily leaving it lying there, it makes sense, so the position of the cup in the frame makes sense and it works regardless of any rule of third’s etc. My idea was to take a football in a field placed at various points in the frame around a set of goals. I can see the narrative in just about every position, which has nothing to do with where the ball is in the frame but more where the ball is in relation to the goals. As an example, every watcher of football knows what a ball slightly right of centre and 20 yards out from goal means – A good chance of imminent excitement. Having talked this through with my tutor I have decided to try to try at least at first to avoid a narrative dimension by creating pictures that are more abstract.
My spot is a Christmas decoration.
Here my eye is drawn to the bauble and immediately to the back of the frame and round to the left observing the empty space.
Centre of frame. Subject is obvious and the image is balanced but lacks any intent or imperative for the eye to go anywhere other than the subject which then appears small and insignificant.
There is some intent here, suggesting a journey to or from the top right by the bauble. My eye tends to bounce between the bauble bottom left and top right.
Open space at the bottom of the frame seems wasteful, my eye is drawn over only once and I then discount the space.
Again in this image there is a sense of journey had or to be taken by the bauble, my eye is drawn between the bauble and top right where the draft excluder creates some haven or end / beginning.
Bauble as subject is less obvious but a sense of movement to be is evident. In this case though the movement follows the line straight up the centre of the frame.
Journeys end. This image, although there is much empty space, still has an internal balance to me and the large amount of empty space does not seem pointless. My eye follows an imagined journey from bottom left in an anti-clockwise arc towards it’s destination top right.
Here both the bauble as subject and sense of journey are less clear and the empty space in the centre of the frame remains empty and wasteful.
Bringing in some sense of narrative with a decorated Christmas tree using up the top 3rd of the frame. My eye is immediately drawn to the bauble and then round clockwise through the frame, helped by the shape of the tree and light on right hand side.
Bauble as subject is all but lost here. Eventually my eye rests on the bauble after observing the frame for a while. Once there though there is an interesting subtlety that allows me to rest here and contemplate the baubles journey.
In this case centre bottom 3rd intersection, the sense of journey feels clipped, limited to a direct fall from the tree, however I like the centrality and sense of symmetry this provides. It makes for a strong message that this is about “a bauble that has fallen off this tree” and thats it clear and concise.
DKL_OCA_ExpressingYourVision_LearningLog 