Still water reflecting clouds with hint of pink
Lens-Artists,  Photographic techniques,  Themed galleries

Gallery: take two rectangles

Deborah Copaken, American author and photojournalist

However this week Egidio asks us to do just that for the Lens Artists challenge, specifically for rectangles and even more specially for two rectangles. The most obvious example of these, I reckon, is the separation of land and sky when photographing a flat landscape. At its simplest we can reduce these almost to basic geometrical shapes.

That in itself can be interesting, but we can also then add something to one of the rectangles to create a focal point in the image, using the rectangle almost as a frame within the frame of the image. Looking through my archives I discovered that I do this quite a lot, without really being conscious of the geometry involved. A tree against a sunset sky, an animal, a person. In every case the ‘frame’ created by the rectangle helps to draw attention to the object.

Most of my examples below do just that, to a greater or lesser extent. While it’s perfectly possible to use this compositional tool for portrait format images, all of these are landscape format because I was focusing mainly on the horizon as the dividing line between my two rectangles. And all are from my archives so you may well have seen them before, but hopefully a few at least will be new to you. Or maybe you will see them through new eyes, as I did, thanks to Egidio’s challenge!

My feature photo was taken in Reykjavik, late one evening in May when the days were long and the nights short.

Sea, sunset sky and small boat

Lake and wooded hills with a large bird flying

Heron in flight, Lake Arenal, Costa Rica


Distant mountains reflected in a lake with birds feeding at the edge

Large bird flying above rocky coastline

White wall against a blue sky with a bare tree

Bare tree isolated against the sky

Road running through landscape of dense trees

Elephant by water's edge

Elephant in Chobe National Park, Botswana


Brown scaly animal on bare soil

Young boy peeking over a wooden bench

Shirts on hangers on a wall with shop sign

Wall with rugs hanging and palm trees behind

Tree in front of a tall sand dune

Sand dune with car on top

Small boat passing a coastal village with gulls overhead

Metal bridge high above water with rocky islets

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