Comments on: Photo of the Day

By: v ~

v ~ — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:34:45 +0000

i like the juxtaposition of this pic – the stark, clean, smooth lines of the modern towering architecture next to the old world antique lamp post and buildings of orange and green hue sandwiched between the organic natural world feel of the tree in the foreground and the brilliant blue sky backdrop appeal to me. the dark buildings to the right ground and frame the pic nicely.

note to “jim”: …brush up on your happiness. you strike me as a little too snarky. or perhaps you were just having a bad day and felt the need to take it out on someone else when you made the above comment.

By: Radley Balko

Radley Balko — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:01:38 +0000

Thanks for the tips. I’m familiar with the rule of thirds. Bu to be honest, I take and crop photos in a way that I find aesthetically pleasing. Not particularly interested in always following rules. Sorry you don’t like this one.

As for lenses, I don’t always have room to take a full camera bag. This trip, I only brought the camera and a new lens I wanted to try out.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:18:00 +0000

Radley,

I love your blog, but from one amateur photographer to another, you need to brush up on the basics of proper composition. Here’s a good primer:

http://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/10-top-photography-composition-rules

The most basic rule is the rule of thirds, which you violate pretty roughly in this photo. The second one is the “Golden Mean” or the “Golden Ratio”:

http://jakegarn.com/tag/golden-mean/

Another problem is that you are using the wrong lens for your subject. For architecture, which you seem to enjoy, you should really get a good wide-angle fixed focal length lens – 35mm or less (especially if you don’t have a full-frame DSLR). Not trying to be too snarky, just helpful.