1B Leading Line(s)
Knowing how to successfully incorporate a leading line into your composition is considered to be one of the key photographic tools, that belongs in every photographer’s toolbox. Leading lines can simultaneously serve multiple purposes. A leading line can draw the viewer’s eye into the picture and directs their attention to a desired “payoff” element. They also direct the viewer’s eye through the frame providing a sense of depth and/or dynamism. If interesting enough, a leading line may become the subject on its’ own merit. Or may be seen as an essential part of the story line, like a path into the woods. But beware that a plain line this is not that interesting and/or doesn’t lead to a “payoff”.

In terms of presentation, leading lines can be converging, curvy, vertical, diagonal, bold and obvious or broken and/or subtle. Leading lines are everywhere, if you are on the lookout for them and obviously know how to spot them. This is where training your eye to see comes in handy. Leading lines is one of those more useful techniques that you want to have Arnold Schwarzenegger like muscle memory for.

For this TA, create interesting compositions that rely on some form of leading line. You can choose to have it lead to a pot of gold or hold its’ own like a yellow brick road.

2B “Perspective: Looking Down”

The power of perspective is standard compositional principal to keep in mind when out photographing. You may have observed that a high proportion of photographs are taken at eye level. This is the level humans customarily see the world. Okay, just standing while holding your camera at eye level is easier than getting down on the ground or climbing up a ladder in order to get a unique perspective. Yet, there are many images that gain impact because of their unique perspective. Cute terms like “bird’s-eye view” or “worm’s eye view” are used to denote these more unusual compositional perspectives. This PoV tends to compress your subjects. Take advantage of this compositionally.

Looking down is a distinctive change in perspective. This POV provides the viewer with a fresh interpretation of everyday scenes. You can capture pictures while looking down from a very high vantage point, often using a telephone lens, or just looking down while standing in place and maybe using a more wide-angle lens. And don’t forget popular idioms such as “looking down in embarrassment, “looking down one’s nose” or looking down the road.”

Just hop on the next SpaceX rocket to gain an out of this world looking down perspective. Missed the flight? Well, closer to home search for vantage points where you can peer down from either close bye or far away. Show us an interesting photo taken from this innovative perspective.

*Note: Looking down was a photographic perspective favored by our departed member Carl Zucker.
We miss him and this Theme Assignment is meant to be homage to Carl.
 

3B “Hard To Touch”
This conceptual theme assignment is intended to encourage you to visually present creative ways to convey how things (tangible and/or projected) may be hard to have contact with. Physically, there are objects that hard to touch because they are rough, sharp, toxic or out of reach. There may also be desired objects that are forbidden or has some barrier (physical/emotional) that impedes meaningful contact. Of course there are always the things dreams are made of, these are difficult to attain and may forever remain out of reach.

Take off your restricting gloves and extend a Promethean hand and capture images that grasp this concept in a manner that others will tangibly relate to.

4B “Give Us Our Daily Bread”
We are not just talking about a loaf of sliced Wonder Bread. This well-known expression, from the Lord’s Prayer, can be interpreted in a variety of ways. At face value, bread products constitute a food stable around the world. Psychologically, we also appreciate that man does not live by bread alone. There are many spiritual and creative activates that are essential sources of emotional sustenance. The act of breaking bread implies acts of sharing and good will. In the American vernacular, the terms “dough/bread” are also used to reference money.

You can choose to photograph any type of bread product or find creative ways to interpret the saying to represent endeavors/activities that convey existential nourishment.

For this Theme Assignment, kneed the grains of your imagination and bake up some creative images.
Your creative goods will emerge from your artistic oven a toasty brown.

5B Pair
“Good Things Come in Pairs” is a Chinese proverb implying the two things are in balance. For this TA, we are going to break the popular, albeit misunderstood, convention – the Rule of Odd Numbers. Judges preach the gospel of the necessity of having an odd number of elements – or else – a low score.

Many factors can influence how an image can be viewed. The insistence on an odd number of elements is a bit contradictory to the stimuli humans are exposed to on a daily basis. Ask yourself, what is the ratio of things that come in odd numbers versus things that come as dyads. Next time you step out of the shower, look in the mirror and count the number of paired body pairs, verses an odd number of physical attributes. What do you have three of? If you were shooting a wedding and wanted to be a real stickler for the rule of odds, when photographing the bride and groom would you insist on incorporating a guest, who is secretly having an affair with one of the loving couples, just to have three people in the picture? I think not!

So not too many things actually come in groups of 3,5,7. But many things come a physical duo. There are numerous single objects that are never separated or separate objects that nearly always come together – as a pair. Then there are different objects that are yoked by appearance, function, cultural norms, etc.

As Pablo Picasso stated, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” While the rule of odd numbers is a popular convention and has merit it is not to say that a compelling image cannot be made with a pair. Here is your opportunity to re-envision the world as a pair. Think of the ordinary and explore the extraordinary. Out with the rule of odds and in with dual nature of things.

6B White

Considered an achromatic color, white is created by combining all of the wavelengths of the visible light spectrum. In late Old English, the term: “hwist” meant “a highly luminous color devoid of chroma.” The C 1400 lexicon provided the following examples the “white part of the eye,” “milk,” or the “white of an egg.” More contemporary meanings include an Ethnic group of European descent, a general age group ‘white haired old woman,” an emotional state “his lips were white with fear.” Implied moral purity as in the Disney character Snow White.

Brides wear white, as do nurses. This color can also be used to reference cleanliness as in “the white glove treatment” or new beginnings as in “as white as snow.”

Trying to photograph something white can be a bear. You will need to expose carefully as to not blow out the highlights nor have the white turn out a middle tone gray. There can also be challenges to render white subjects with sufficient texture and details without presenting them as too contrasty.

Your challenge it to capture an image in shades of white. Study your subject carefully, adjust your exposure and wait for the decisive moment – “don’t shoot to you see the whites of their eyes.” You get the picture. You can choose to present a straight shot or use an artistic high-key technique. The choice is purely yours.