EX7 Two Up

weekly exercises

17 Feb

So there is ‘The Rule of Odds’. Which says photographing items in odd number multiples is a secret recipe for success. One, Three, Five, Seven... etc. Yet there are so many famous photographs of pairs. The Dianne Arbus series of ‘Twins’ comes instantly to mind. Why? How? You ask. Exactly. This weeks exercise is so we can figure this out.

What ever you photograph this week, find a pair and experiment with them. Try some of the different combinations which I will list now:

1. Both taking an equal part in the composition.

2. One being dominant visually over the other. You can do this by varying thier size, and have one closer to the camera, one in sharper focus, or one more blurred. One obscuring part of the other. (See my included example of Pandas)

3. Compose for balance between the two

4. Compose for imbalances between the two.

You can explore any subjects you like. some suggestions.

Two identical flowers

Two people

Two dogs

Two balls

A pair of shoes

A pair of hands

A pair of eyes

Two windows

Two cars

A pair of forks

I am sure you get the idea. Now if you were to choose two dogs, they would need to be the similar size otherwise I don’t think you will really start to understand what’s going on between the two. So choose something reasonably identical to make it easier. But, as always, without a learning risk, little is gained. If you choose balls, perhaps you could experiment with thier size.

I recommend you try this exercise with a couple of different pairs of subjects. So you may like try with the two dogs, two apples and two flowers.

When posting, post only your resolved photographs. The ones that you think work. Let’s see if we can figure out why each one works. This is a great opportunity to analyse and comment on the work of others. Why do they work? Is it an impossible task?