If you randomly wander the streets in alien places, as I am wont to do, you will encounter things you do not understand. Discovery is the point, and pleasure, of travel.
We were at an annual oyster roast for a group of long-term friends last Saturday evening. The oysters were singles, big and juicy, steamed perfectly, and I ate more than my fill. The top photograph is from that evening, and this is the group I mean. (With busy schedules, there’s always one or two missing from various group photos over the years.)
Over 40 years ago, this group of young, professional, smart, good-looking women, from a variety of careers, came together somehow, and stuck. They eventually made room for a few men, and some children. The bottom photograph is one daughter’s wedding, a young woman “blessed” with so many surrogate moms, plus her own, standing on the left, in black.
They’ve been through so much together, always with laughter.
Repetition and symmetry can be strong compositional tools, up to the point where they become predictable. Once a pattern has been established there needs to be an interruption, a hiccup, to keep it interesting.
The Frame is also a primary tool, the edge of what the photographer allows the viewer to know about the scene, selected from an infinite number of choices. Within any scene there may be numerous, visually interesting points of view, some similar, some dramatically different. For example, the sidewalk, curb, gutter, and reflections of the trees here, on a different day, were the subject of last week’s post.