Pavement

The theme for this weeks posting is perspective. By perspective, I mean that the perspective of each picture is below ankle level. Either the camera (and my head) is on the ground or held right above the ground. It should be said that I did not go out and decide to take a photo-shoot from the ground. Looking back at 200 pictures I took this week, I found the pattern.

The picture to the left is a normal house in a suburb outside of West Philadelphia. Right off the bat the picture catches attention due to the perspective/angle. The house is the focus though, not the ground in front (as opposed to later the later pictures).
An added element that I found interesting, is that every person imagines a different surroundings for the scene outside the borders of the picture. I see the picture and I place it in the neighborhood and the block where I found it, but someone unfamiliar to the area has no frame of reference. This has specific ramifications for what is inside the picture as well. How big is the house? With the tree in the way only a view from a different angle can tell. Is there a street between the camera and the house? The wood contrasting to the bushes might suggest that one runs horizontally. But the pavement running along the left side of the picture might be a street as well. Only another perspective can answer.



This is another neighborhood picture, though obviously the elimination of any outside indicators can place it in any climate changing area. That's what makes this picture I think. It's just the leaves and the ground. The tree's aren't even pictured. In addition the leaves, for the most part are dead, or on there way there, yet the picture isn't ugly. Kind of a modern day painting of autumn, with the blacktop pavement replacing the dirt and grass. I'm sure some teen-angst poem could be written about it. Something along the lines of nothing but the dead and dying, the morbidity being so beautiful, and all this agony backdropped by man's own invention. I dunno, I'm putting it out there. Take it or leave it.

The focus is on the front leaves with a progressive lack of detail heading toward the back of the picture. This picture could probably have been taken from any part of this area and shown the same image. The beauty of a tree covered lawn in fall.




There is a lot I like a about this picture. I'm not sure what strikes the eye first, the lines going ad infinitum or the glare of the lights. The fact that this is taken from between the yellow lines is a little abstract, and adds flavor. The focus is on the ground next to the camera, and as such the detail of the pavement is pretty clear while the lights above, which normally garner more detail, become secondary.
The contrast between the lights and pavement is the focal point of this picture. The lights, being "light" attract more attention without any help from angle and perspective. In fact the rest of the pictures I took that night were of the lights, this picture though came out the best. Without the angle and placement of the picture, the lines would lose their prominence in the picture. An interesting test in eye-attraction and picture real-estate.