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NEGATIVE OR EMPTY SPACE: BLACK & WHITE SUNDAY

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BLACK & WHITE SUNDAY – NEGATIVE SPACE

It has been an amusing trip for me, realizing that so many of the things I’ve always done while taking pictures has a name.

BW Steeple

The first one was “bokeh” which it turned out means a softly blurred background. Then along came the “rule of thirds” and now, it’s “negative space.”

BW Manchaug - 2013

Again, instinct takes over. My natural dislike of clutter takes over, so I always try to leave some room for nothingness. When I create a web page or a printed one, I leave a lot of “white space” — at least 60% including margins and gutters — because the human eye is easily distracted. If you fill up everything, it pulls the eye away from the thing you want looked at.

Thank you Paula for being such a gracious host and a fine example.

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Categories: #Photography, Composition

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10 replies

  1. Paula
    02/29/2016 • 02:49

    Oh yes, these are excitingly beautiful 🙂

    Like

  2. evilsquirrel13
    02/28/2016 • 22:19

    I am so easily distracted, even the negative space would probably pull my attention from….. oh look, a squirrel!

    Like

  3. swo8
    02/28/2016 • 17:32

    I like the feeling of power. You look up to that striking building and you can feel the power of the divine, then you look at the power of the water going over the falls.
    Leslie

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      02/28/2016 • 21:48

      Thanks!! Those white clapboard steeples are the symbol of the region. You know you are in New England when you start seeing those tall white churches.

      And, we have dams. Waterfalls, we call them, but they are really dams on the Blackstone River. They were the power for the industrial revolution in the U.S. in the late 1700s … about 100 years after England. The dams are the visible symbols that it all started here. The Blackstone is a great little river.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Charlie@Seattle Trekker
    02/28/2016 • 16:42

    Love the sharp angles, lines, and wonderful detail. This is such an amazing response to the challenge.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      02/28/2016 • 21:42

      Thank you. That’s what I like about the pictures, too. It was also the kind of shooting situations where I could get that kind of sharp angles and contrast, without losing detail. Very bright days!

      Like

  5. Raewyn's Photos
    02/28/2016 • 13:41

    Great photos. Like you I just took the photos but didn’t realise what I was actually doing – they just looked good to me.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      02/28/2016 • 15:29

      You can teach the rules and maybe they will help someone who has a good eyes, but lacks discipline. But I think a lot of rules just make people self-conscious about their work. Also, the rules contradict each other. You actually can’t use them all at once … and even if you can use one or more, it isn’t always a good idea.

      You can’t teach someone to see. You can only help them to see “better.”

      Like

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