Elements & Principles

Welcome to my first blog post! Below I will discuss the elements and principles of design alongside photos that exemplify each topic. Enjoy!

 

Line

This picture is divided up into three sections: white clouds, green trees, and the gray stone. These strati balance the picture’s visual interest and guide your eye across the page as you follow the color as well as down as you move on to the next color.

Photo taken at Stone Mountain State Park, North Carolina.

 

Shape

The rectangles in this picture are very strong and guide the eye up the grand staircase. The ceilings are very tall and the thick, rectangular pillars help anchor the rotunda and stairway and the use of similar shapes at the top of the stairs are continued onto the ceiling, tying the wing together. The hard angles of the rectangles give a sense of power and strength to the room which is ideal for this space as it is where state representatives meet to make policy decisions.

Photo taken at the Ohio Statehouse Rotunda, Columbus Ohio.

 

Color

This photo is unedited and yet the pink of the plant is so vibrant it appears to be glowing. The edges of the petals are white which accentuates the shape of each individual petal but also makes the pink pop further.

Picture taken at the Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.C.

 

Value

This summer sunset exemplifies value in that you can see the gradation of light reflected off the clouds. The gradient need not be black to white: with the colors ranging from yellow, meaning high sun light, to orange to blue, meaning no sun light, it is clear where the sun is hitting and where it is not.

Photo taken in Orem, Utah.

 

Form

The petals on this plant were thick and waxy, making its physical form very easily captured. The plant grows in half-sphere bundles and this form can be seen by the radiating of the petals from the center point continued all the way around and petals in the back appearing darker than the ones in the front, showing depth due to the difference in light.

Picture taken at the Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.C.

 

Texture

The focus of this picture is of the rippling water and the boulders along the shore. The rough texture of the water and the coarse texture of the rocks are captured, adding interest to an otherwise subject-less picture. Below the surface you can also see the water-worn rocks that appear to have a much smoother texture.

Picture taken in Little Traverse Bay, Traverse City Michigan.

 

Space

This picture exemplifies space because the background is not perceptible which makes the subject, the socks, the uncontested subject. By having the negative space white and presenting it on a white page, the positive space appears to be the only thing captured.

Picture taken in my old family home in Utah.

 

Balance

This picture is well balanced in that it is visually symmetrical: I am posing to be shorter like my like little brother, the background is a canyon which brings the focus down to the middle, and the mountains in the back are balanced with the clouds. On top of that, the trail of clouds from the top left corner pull the eye to the center of the picture and then to radiate out from there in either direction because either way you see basically the same thing. Neither side draws the eye more than another and the natural landscape further makes this staged photo harmonious.

Picture taken in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.

 

Contrast

This picture shows contrast in color with the blue and white sky and shadows alongside my dad’s orange coat and the dark shadows and posts around him. Orange and blue are complementary and therefore make each other visually pop. The side of the posts we are on is Alta and the other is Snowbird’s Mineral Basin. The dark shadows and orange directly contrast the bright white and light blue of Snowbird.

 

Emphasis

The emphasis of this picture is obviously on the little blue flowers and this was done by isolating the flowers, enhancing the focus on the subject, making the negative space of the picture all the same color, and blurring out the background details. All together, this makes the little blue flowers visually pop and the green backdrop provides unity throughout because of its natural color scheme.

Picture taken in American Fork Canyon, Utah.

 

Movement

This picture captures the instant my boyfriend fell while trying to get up on skis and thus sent the rope into recoil. The spiral pattern of the recoil shows the force with which it is moving and the white water around the skier shows his movement into the water. This motion also draws your eye from the top left corner down to the skier, who is otherwise hard to see, and once you reach the water your eye goes onto the beach and treeline, but also back to the rope.

Picture taken in Topinabee, Michigan.

 

Pattern

This is my roommate’s family log-of-a-dog walking along the brick path in our backyard. The brick pattern adds interest to the picture and shows exactly where the dog is heading: towards you along the path.

Picture taken in Columbus, Ohio.

 

Proportion

The juxtaposition of the boat, normally seen as a large object, alongside the walls highlights the shear height of the reservoir’s walls.

Picture taken at Lake Powell, Utah.

 

Alignment

The flowers on this plant have grown in a straight line with the repetition of the same little flower pattern. This principle is accentuated in part due to the contrast in colors emphasizing the bright orange and yellow against the dark backdrop.

Picture taken the Botanic Gardens in Washington, D.C.

 

Unity

This picture is unified thanks to the natural color scheme consisting of whites, blues, browns, grays, and greens alongside only pops of terracotta orange. The elements are all logically placed with more visually in the bottom left and right corners which are connected by the dock. A majority of the space is taken up by the cloud arrangement which radiates from a single loci which makes none of the edges or corners crowded with white.

Picture taken in Topinabee, Michigan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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