Exercise 13

Project - Frame shapes and sizes

Exercise - Vertical and horizontal frames

The aim of this exercise is to take a series of shots in vertical/portrait format and then take the same subjects in horizontal/landscape format and to see how this effects framing and how each format presents different options and constraints.

I chose to take my series on a stretch of 2 miles of road that I travel down every day on the way to work. I'd previously been tempted to shoot some of the scenery off the side of the road, but more recently became more intrigued by the prospects of the road itself.

I also liked the idea of taking a series which might work as a total and to impose a series of additional constraints on myself in order to increase the consistency of the shots. So I limited myself to using an equivalent 35mm focal length, only shooting directly across the road and not including any humans/cars in the shots. All these aspects were inspired by Lewis Baltz.

There are a lot of shots, so I'm not going to comment on each one, however, I will say that this is was one of the most enjoyable exercises I've completed and certainly one which I'm most pleased with the outcome. The imposed vertical and horizontal framing encouraged me to concentrate of the graphical nature and how the opportunities presented were different for vertical and horizontal - partly from what was actually available to fit in the frame and partly because of what lines & shapes could be formed for each framing.

I also tried putting a few of my preferred shots into black and white in order to emphasise the graphic nature (again, inspired by Lewis Baltz)