The Art of Patterns part 2

Getting creative with patterns

Blogged by: Saumil Shah

In Part 1, I touched upon some examples of artistic photos through patterns occuring in nature. I shall now discuss how to get more creative with patterns in nature. The previous example with the palm fronds was very well illuminated and had bright, vivid and pleasing colours. Sometimes, the subject exhibiting the pattern itself may not carry pretty colours or may be poorly lit. But the pattern itself may be gorgeous. The photographs discussed in this post are examples of patterns formed by silhouettes.

The photograph below is of another palm leaf which was quite poorly illuminated. The tips of its fronds were beginning to wither away and it wasn’t brighly coloured either. However, the pattern formed by its leaves was beautiful.

I stood close to the palm leaf and focussed on the fronds so that the shape formed by the pattern is very sharp. Behind the palm plant was a lawn, and having it out of focus yielded the green colour filling in the spaces between the fronds.

The spine of the leaf is straight, slanted slightly. I used this to my advantage for applying the Rule of Thirds to this photograph. Think of the photograph divided into three columns. The eye is led from the top to the bottom, with the diagonal line slicing through the centre column. The diagonal separates the picture into two regions. As opposed to the previous example, these regions exhibit bilateral symmetry and similarity.

The beauty of the pattern is brought out by the silhouette.

Continue onwards to see my best shot of the day when hunting for patterns in nature.

The photograph below shows patterns formed by the leaves of the Gulmohar tree, which flowers during the hot Indian summers. The leaves of the Gulmohar are like ferns.

I chose to fill up the entire frame with these tiny little leaves. Observe once again how I have used the Rule of Thirds with the diagonal line slicing the picture into two symmetric regions. The leaves are very dense. The pattern formed creates a very interesting contrast between the positive and negative spaces. An almost equal part of the picture is taken up by the leaves as is taken up by the sky. This adds intrigue to the pattern.

I stood directly under the tree and pointed the lens straight up. Actually I was lying flat on the ground to hold my camera steady. Indian summers tend to overexpose the sky, but this worked to my advantage by rendering all the leaves as silhouettes.

So you see, keep looking for patterns and you never know which little corner may turn into an artistic photograph! As William Blake wrote:

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.