A Hole

I’ve decided to extend my series of articles entitled ‘Five Tips for Making Better Pictures with the Camera You Already Have’ onto what will hopefully be regular posts on road-tested photography tips. These tips like the ones before them will feature information that I believe will improve the quality of pictures that you make by maximizing the best piece of gear you already have — your brain. :-)#

No, I’m not trying to be a smart-ass about the title. Well, okay maybe just a little bit. This isn’t going to be a treatise on holes, but rather the shape these usually come in. And before your mind wanders, allow me to make the argument for including circles in your pictures.

Yes, circles. What were you thinking of anyway?

• Circles are strong compositional elements, whether they are found (such as the hole in the floor in the picture above) or implied (as shown in the cluster of flowers in the picture below). Their strength lies in the fact that they tend to enclose the objects found within them, which leads the viewer’s eye inward and effectively establishes the focal point of your image.
• The round shape of a circle creates tension with the straight edges of the frame. And also has the potential for creating a picture within a picture, which makes for a layered and far more interesting composition.

Well, whaddya know? There are earthly rewards to being holey after all.

More to come…