Photography - Bridlington 1/4/2010

As I enjoyed photographing landscapes in a previous project I decided doing this blog would be a good opportunity to practise photography and evaluate what I have done. I chose Bridilington, a seaside town on Yorkshire's east coast as the location of the shoot as the sea, cliffs and harbour makes for some great scenery. I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to enhance some of the attributes of the photos such as brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights.

This photo was taken on Bridlingon's south beach at the side of the sea wall, the tide was very far out leaving behind a strip of rockpools. The framing is open as the viewer is aware the landscape will carry on outside the scope of the photograph. The Angle at which this photograph was taken is very interesting, the red lines highlight the main composition of the photo, the wall which immediately grabs the attention of the viewer, leads the eye towards the central point which in turn meets the horizon line. The light beacon in the distance is the central focus in the photograph however the eye is led to other detail such as the sharp shapes of the rocks which border the wall. What I also liked about the picture is the sharp angle the light makes (highlighted in green) which compliments the line and angle of the wall.

The colour and tone of the photograph is very earthy and natural with the blue of the sky, reflected in some of the puddles on the ground, and the black of the seaweed creating interesting accents of colour. The seaweed is particularly interesting as it forms a perfect line as to where the sea level reaches up the wall, much like the markers on a swimming pool, as well as perfectly covering the rugged rocks.

This second photo was taken at the harbour, again a sharp edge, this time of the pier leads the eye outwards in its direction, the pier acts as a sort of frame for the main focus of the photo, the boats in the centre. Again openly framed with the viewers eye, level with the horizon, an interesting factor of the photo is that there are two horizon lines, one is the sea wall in the background and the other behind that; the sea.

The number and size sequencing of the central boats is its main attraction, and what is immediately apparent to the viewer. It looks very tidy as the boats laid next to each other get less in number the further into the distance which is complimentary to the rule that things get smaller the further they are away. This is emphasised by the structure of crab nets above the boats.

The colour and tone is much brighter in this photo, giving a warmer feel with a palette of bright primary colours and earthy ones like the brown mud. The contrast of light and shadow particularly of that created by the crab nets is very detailed and adds interest to the photo.