Exercise: Vertical then horizontal frames

First up are the vertical photos. For this project, I took a sequence of photos framed vertically at the marina, which is one of my favorite places to shoot. The exercise is designed to help me think more about composing vertically. The text says that we have a tendency to think first about framing horizontally, in part because that is a more natural way of looking at the world. So this project was designed to get us to think more about composing vertically.

At the marina I found no shortage of subjects that lent themselves to a vertical composition, all the piers and masts going up would naturally call for a vertical framing in many instances. So, I conciously decided to seek out other subjects to compose vertically. I used the digital camera and took literally hundreds of photos, but will only post 5 here.


This first one has a tall pole would naturally called out for a vertical composition.


This is a dinghy, that by shooting vertically seems to give it a longer feel to it.


Front of wooden sailboat.


Front of motorboat, with anchor. This vertical orientation makes the boat feel really long, it's actually much shorter than it appears here.



This is my favorite. I like the mix of shapes and textures, and also the contrast of the lighter fish shape on the darker pier. I think the vertical orientation helps give the right space for the shapes to work together in a balanced way.