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

Gallery: take two rectangles

June 23, 2024 / 56 Comments

I loved to press the shutter, to freeze time, to turn little slices of life into rectangle rife with metaphor

Deborah Copaken, American author and photojournalist

Shapes and lines are important elements in photographic composition, but how often do we stop to consider them? I think I am more aware of lines than I am of shapes, to be honest. I look for leading lines and for dynamic diagonals in particular, but I’m less likely to look for specific shapes.

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

Sunset at Baobab Beach, Madagascar

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

In the Salar de Atacama, Chile

Large bird flying above rocky coastline

Pelican in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica

White wall against a blue sky with a bare tree

Wall and tree, Praia, Santiago, Cape Verde

Bare tree isolated against the sky

In the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Road running through landscape of dense trees

Road in Zambia, on our way to Botswana

Elephant by water's edge

Elephant in Chobe National Park, Botswana

Brown scaly animal on bare soil

Armadillo near Lago Pehoe, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

Young boy peeking over a wooden bench

Bored youngster at Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico

Shirts on hangers on a wall with shop sign

T-shirts for sale in Sal, Cape Verde

Wall with rugs hanging and palm trees behind

Rugs for sale in Marrakesh (rectangles within a rectangle)

Tree in front of a tall sand dune

Tree and sand dune, Sossusvlei, Namibia

Sand dune with car on top

Our guide’s car in the Empty Quarter, Oman

Small boat passing a coastal village with gulls overhead

Fishing boat, Mirbat, Oman

Metal bridge high above water with rocky islets

Deception Pass Bridge, Washington State

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56 Comments

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