Abstract Compositions in Photography

Video Transcript

"When taking photographs, it's always important to be conscious of lines, patterns, and then doing something that might be a little abstract. You can see in this photograph that I wanted to take a photograph of the pier. You'll see it off in the distance, but I wanted to incorporate some other elements into the photograph. So I looked around and I saw some really distinct lines being formed from the shadows of this fence. So I decided to incorporate the lines in the composition of this photograph, and in my eye, the lines from these shadows taking you from the bottom portion of this photograph and lead you all the way to the top corner which is the pier which is what I originally intended to shoot. So again you can use different patterns of lines to accentuate your subject, but at the same time lines can also be your subject. An example of a pattern in a photograph can be seen in this photograph I took out in San Francisco. The initial pattern I saw was just all the different windows breaking up this painting of some jazz musicians. So again, it's more than just a photograph of a painting because you've got the pattern of these windows going throughout the image. Another example, just something abstract can kind of create some interesting images. I just noticed this light reflecting off this puddle on the ground with all these leaves and pines thrown in it. To me, it's an abstract image but I think that there's a lot of interesting things to look at in this image. So you don't have to use my examples, but do always be conscious of the different lines and patterns going on around you when you're taking your photographs. And think about some abstract things that you can either shoot or do with your image to create interesting subjects, interesting photographs."