Part 2 - Elements of Design - Exercise 8 - Rhythm and Pattern

The final exercise in Part 2 was Rhythm & Patterns, where I had to produce 2 photography one conveying rhythm and the other a pattern.

Rhythm

For rhythm I shot a large pebble by the shore of a river when the water was low. I used a shallow depth of field to concentrate the initial focus on the stone and let the eye travel across the sand to the rhythmical beat of the absent flowing water that has left the rolling waves of sand. I decided on a tight square crop to contain the feeling of motion and not fade out of the image, instead allowing the eye to bounce off the edge of the frame and travel back across the mini sand dunes.

Pattern

This image was taken of a pile of old railway bolts. I found the colours and the random directions created an interesting pattern when cropped tightly to show no edges to the pile. I was aware that strictly speaking pattern should be spatial repetition and this image is possibly too random in the spatiality of the bolts and sending the eye in lots of different directions. Although I felt that with the tight crop and no boundaries I can still be that the eye imagines them continuing well beyond it.

Pattern 2

Pattern 2 has been added to give an example of a more traditional pattern with these bolts on the side of a rail wagon where with low sunlight have long low shadows to give a more 3 dimensional feel to the bolts. The strong horizontal and vertical lines made by the bolt heads cement a static feeling, but with the even spaces between them and the tight crop it can be imagined that out with the boundaries of the frame they will continue to produce this static pattern.