I’m not entirely sure where I came up with the idea for this image. It could be an image of Anil Rao’s I saw on NPN. At the time I couldn’t understand why he took it nor what he was after. It also could be from the garden work I have been doing here in Baja. We have entire fields of these volcanic bits laying around in various sizes, colors, and shapes. I enjoy looking at them.
This is a real leap for me because it’s such an unorthodox composition. I mean - where do you look? But I don’t wish to guide the viewer. Just see what you think.
This actually may look better without a white frame (it’s off white) but it’s become a habit now. And frankly, I’m tired of thinking which is better.
I think there is enough of a pattern to hold interest in this composition. Did you consider a vignette while processing or dodging or burning parts of the scene? I do find the what appears to be direct middle of the day light to be little distracting from the pattern.
I actually like the empty spaces within the image. I spent time creating a composition that was not rocks equally scattered throughout the frame. This layout feels right somehow.
I don’t think it’s the case that isn’t any place to look. When I look at the original image, my eye is drawn to the following implied triangle. Probably because the size of the stones are so large relative to all the rest.
I can see a need for some tightening up of the composition, if for nothing else than to draw more attention to the implied triangle. I do agree that the empty space does help define the pattern , and is more interesting than a pattern of stones that fills the frame with no empty space. However I think the empty space is more helpful at the bottom than it is at the top. I have another alternate crop, which in the end is pretty similar to Harley’s version, but with a tighter crop at the top. and I cloned away few stones along the bottom edge.
Thank you @Harley_Goldman, @Adhika_Lie, and @Ed_McGuirk. Thank you for trying to make sense of this with various analysis. The truth is that no real thought was put in to this composition. It just felt ‘right’. The intent is for the eye to roam freely across the canvas and enjoy the individual, or groups of rocks. There is a sense of the ‘whole’ but it’s very subtle as to be almost not there. It’s just a form of composition I experimented with.
I have to say that there was quite a bit of cropping and recropping to come up with this so it wasn’t just a scattergun approach. But even when I shot this in the field I knew that the image wasn’t going to be what was in the viewfinder. I had a strong feeling about it but wasn’t sure where the frame would be placed.
Having said that, I do like Adhika’s crop suggestion.
After the cropping was complete I did feel that the left felt heavier than the right and several rocks were ‘removed’. It still feels that way.
I shot this as a new (for me) way to be aware of the desert. Something different. It was something I appreciated without being aware of it. That is, I was aware of it but not consciously. Once I made an image of it I ‘defined’ it for myself. It’s a way of discovering.
That is very well put Igor, and really sums nicely how I look at the image. This was an experiment that tries to push beyond “just another pattern shot” It helps that there is a “triadic” element in the pattern, whether you look at it as my triangle, or @Adhika_Lie’s trefoil. I think it’s the boundarys around the stones that create the subtle sense of “whole”. To me, a frame filling pattern of rocks really doesn’t have a sense of “whole” becuause as far as the viewer knows the pattern could extend well beyond what the photographer shows in their image.
