Snow and patterns

Well we had our first snow this past week. It didn’t amount to much so I decided to play with the patterns the snow created on our back patio. While I tried lots of variations, the lead blog image is my favorite. As luck would have it a few new leaves fell on the patio and I was able to find this nice triangular formation – No I didn’t place any of these leaves. Challenging yourself to find strong composition elements or patterns like this is part of training your eye to create pleasing compositions - ones that play off the fact that our brains like patterns.

The second image shows a simpler less dynamic shot, but it too was created with composition elements in mind. While the leaf is centered, notice that the background consists of a three by three grid with only three full bricks shown. This was no accident  - the shot was carefully framed.