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4 thoughts on “Lunchtime Photo”

  1. Vog46

    Jeez Kevin was Marian driving too fast for you?
    The cacti are not centered in the frame
    Tsk, Tsk, Tsk

    (only joking of course)

    1. pjcamp1905

      Taking every photo centered is how to turn a photograph into a snapshot. Let's look at the composition here. The big mountain and the cylindrical saguaro are more or less centered, but there is a big mountain to the left not balanced by one to the right, and a big mass of brush to the right only partially balanced by one to the left. Finally, the multiarmed saguaro is on its own to the left without a balancing one to the right.

      In other words, there are several implied symmetries, each of which is broken. In both art and science, perfectly symmetrical patterns can be monotonous. Indeed, there’s a sense in which symmetry is the opposite of information. If I showed you one wing of a butterfly, you could easily sketch the other; if I showed you a single paling, you could draw the entire picket fence. Since the missing pieces can so easily be reconstructed, they carry no new information.

      If, by contrast, we want to represent or store new information, it follows that we need to find ways to break the symmetry in order to encode our data. That's how broken symmetry works in physics.

      Take Michelangelo's David.

      https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Michelangelo%27s_David_with_pedestal.jpg/220px-Michelangelo%27s_David_with_pedestal.jpg

      The human body is bilaterally symmetric. But this statue would be far less interesting if both legs were parallel and both arms were in the same position. It is the broken symmetry that makes it art.

      Or Leonardo's The Last Supper:

      https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/The-Last-Supper-Restored-Da-Vinci_32x16.jpg/2560px-The-Last-Supper-Restored-Da-Vinci_32x16.jpg

      There are 6 apostles on each side of Jesus, but they are not in exactly the same positions and are not doing the same things. Even Jesus, who at first glance looks symmetric, is not. His head is tilted to one side, not upright, and one hand is palm up, the other palm down. Again, there is an underlying symmetry, but if it were painted that way it would be dull and boring. It is the broken symmetry that makes it an interesting composition.

      Or how about Venus on the Half Shell?

      https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTgwNzU5NTUyOTYxMDI5MjA4/in-what-ways-did-renaissance-art-incorporate-both-christian-and-classical-themes.jpg

      There are figures equally spaced on the left and right but there are two on the left vs. one on the right. Venus is standing dead center but her arms and legs and hair are positioned differently. And all 4 figures are on a diagonal line sloping down to the right. Now in your mind's eye, erase one person on the left and put the remaining person as a mirror image of the one on the right. Send Venus' hair straight back, and position her arms and legs identically. A lot more boring, isn't it?

      Breaking an underlying symmetry is one of the key strategies in making art out of not art. In photography, you learn the rule of thirds: Imagine two pairs of parallel lines. Two of them divide the scene into thirds vertically and the other two divide it in to thirds horizontally. The rule goes: position objects on interest at the intersections of these lines or, if they are long, then along one of the lines. That rule is violated as much as it is honored, but it forces you to think in terms of breaking the symmetry.

      Some examples of using the rule of thirds to make a shot more interesting:

      https://mastinlabs.com/cdn/shop/articles/what-is-the-photography-rule-of-thirds-179852_2048x.jpg?v=1660021609

      https://cdn-bjpdk.nitrocdn.com/dyjDRTumiVVFLKEpXMADzKdEUUbypNrL/assets/images/optimized/rev-e83b2d4/visualeducation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/rule-of-thirds-blog.jpg

      https://www.capturelandscapes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Greenland-Husky-Rule-of-Thirds.jpg

      Which of these do you find more visually engaging?

      https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RuleOfThirds-SideBySide.gif#/media/File:RuleOfThirds-SideBySide.gif

      Or you could just bag the whole thing and, you know, do whatever Marissa Tipton is up to. Not sure waht it is but I'll bet it has something to do with this:

      https://img.nbc.com/files/images/2015/4/21/140207_2721848_Velvet_Jones_School_of_Technology_anvver_3.jpg

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