I actually shot the subject and bridge at several different angles in this photo, at several different lens lengths, as she was walking along it. As I looked through them later I decided this was the flattest one because of the out-of-focus background and cut-off lines. She's the only object in focus against a fairly solid green background, and because the lines of the fence end so quickly, they don't particularly lead the eye anywhere. There are also no clear size indications that the fence is receding away from her, making it even flatter. If I were to change anything in this photo I probably would've tried one more angle where the fence is perfectly horizontal.
There's a lot of space in this photo but it's super flat because of the complete lack of depth indicators. The lines strictly follow the X and Y axes, and there's nothing on the Z axis. The sky looks very close in relation to the flag. I'm actually really glad I shot from a low angle here because if I had gone eye-level with the flag the photo would've been deeper, because the mountains behind the flag would've been visible. I like that there's a certain uniformity to this photo, although I think it would've been cool if there were no clouds in the sky!
First of all, I've discovered through this photo that photographing animals is pretty hard! This cat, my parents' cat, was constantly moving and this is the only shot of her looking directly down the lens. I love how it looks like portraiture and that she has such a nice hairlight, surrounded by bokeh. I was on an extremely shallow lens for this shot - a 50mm, if I remember correctly - and I think the shallow depth of field really lends itself to the flat nature of this image. Nothing is in focus but the cat's eyes and nose, making everything around her blurred and flat.
Photo 1: You definitely did well at picking a good subject and location, and it looks pretty good on its own. To me, the fence lines still make it seem deep though, to some extent.
ReplyDeletePhoto 2: That is very flat, and very centered too. I like how it's exactly in the middle of the frame, looking at the sign from exactly the center axis! It makes me wonder where this sign is located and see what other landmarks may be around!
Photo 3: This truly is a lucky shot, getting the cat to look at you. This is very well-composed and quite charming on the part of the cat. Man, if you have a 50mm, you would be able to make any shot flat, wouldn't you?