Project 21

Moving to diagonals, things got simpler, diagonal lines just jumped out at me whilst walking around the city, although as stated in the text book they were primarily formed by either staircases or perspective convergence of parallel lines

My first image is a very austere staircase outside the modern art museum  To flatten the image and avoid the group of people at the foot of the staircase I shot with a long telephoto.  I particularly like the inclusion of the pillar within this composition

5D2, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 200

The next image is a detail from the HypoVereinsBank building in my local neighbourhood.  This was taken shooting nearly vertically upwards with a medium telephoto of 105mm

5D2, 105mm, f/11, 1/40, ISO 100

Another use of converging lines formed by perspective is the following shot of the moving walkways in Munich's airport.  I positioned the camera in line with the top of the hand rail and centred the shot, not normally a good compositional idea, but it works in this case

40D, 21mm, f/2.8, 1/100, ISO 400

The final image in the four selected for this project is a photograph in which the diagonal is formed by the angle of the lens and the position from which I shot the image.  This photo was taken early one morning just at sunrise as part of a study of autumn in Munich that I am working on.  The path forms the only straight line in the image

5D2, 120mm, f/4.5, 1/50, ISO 200

Looking to the text book, the following images interested me most and utilized a diagonal line as a compositional element:

10 by Brady - This image uses the sloping side of the tent to bring attention to the figure sitting at the centre of the image, without the tent the image would be very static

13  by Talbot - Talbot has created a still life reminiscent of a painting, where he very clearly slopes the broom at precisely the same diagonal angle as the shadow reinforcing the slant

30 by Weston - sand dunes by their very nature slope across any scene, however, by only including one side of the dunes and repeating the shape through the photo he has created a very striking image

47 by Brassai - This is an example of diagonals created by perspective, but with the lines disappearing into blackness providing a sense of unknown and threat from what might be beyond the light