repeated pattern

Nature Opus No. 9

 Posted on November 17, 2016      by Russ Widstrand
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Russ Widstrand "Nature Opus No. 9" 11/17/16

Russ Widstrand “Nature Opus No. 9” 11/17/16

Rhythm in composition is always a good thing – repeating elements and patterns, triangular and serpentine forms – our eyes rejoice in such design elements.

This photograph takes that idea literally, not only in the visual rhythm of moving our eye up and down the image, but also in its mimicry of musical notes on a page.

The location caught my peripheral vision driving one day, I was so struck by the pattern I vowed to come back and shoot it with a real camera. And so I did, several days later. A good thing too, there were construction trucks parked in front of the residential house where I saw this scene. Gardeners were clearing the entire property for a house demolition. I had 15 minutes to make the image before it was all coming down.

I guess I was in rhythm with the photo gods that day.

Woods

 Posted on November 13, 2015      by Russ Widstrand
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November 13, 2015 - ©2015 Russ Widstrand

November 13, 2015 – ©2015 Russ Widstrand

From distressed manufactured wood to the real thing. This and the preceding image for the Game struck me as uncanny in their similarities of color and pattern. I like the shift in subject between the images and yet they share so much in common visually speaking. While we as photographers tend to embrace “quality” light, typically directional soft light at either end of the day, this image breaks those rules by shooting with the sun directly over my shoulder. This type of light – combined with a long lens – has a flattening effect, stripping away conventional dimension and in its place, relying on color and pattern for contrast. I always shoot with concept in mind, however, this concept was not so much what I shot, but what I chose, these two different states of wood.