Our mission in day four of our digital photography challenge was to photograph events in our life. To photograph some of the things that we do that we are grateful for. I get to display my American flag each day. That’s something I am grateful for. One of my son’s serves in the Air Force. The flag reminds me of him.
This flag photograph uses two digital photo techniques. One is the close up focus setting on a digital camera (I’m using a point-and-shoot camera for this 7 day series) and the other is diagonal composition.
Your digital camera has a close up setting on it. You have to go into the “menu” sometimes to find it. Sometimes it’s a button on the back of the camera. What it allows you to do is to focus closer than 2 feet. You couldn’t do that in the old days (4 years ago) with film cameras. So give it a try - find out where the close up (macro) setting is on your camera. And try doing a dozen photos focusing under one foot. It’s really cool. Your photographs will take on a new look.
One of the reasons that this is a dynamic photograph is not only because of the highly symbolic subject ( like a cross would be also) but also because I put the “leading lines” of the photograph at an angle, rather than vertical or horizontal. It adds more “visual tension” when the lines are at angle or diagonal. Leading lines are what our eye follows in a framed piece. Painters have used them for years to lead your eye around inside the frame to where they want you to look. Try photographing some objects at an angle. What do you think?
Tomorrow I’m going to photograph water. I’ll show you a few things that can ruin your water photos.
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