Comfort Zone?

Funny how you see things in an environment that you have passed by many times and not even considered to be there. Its happened to me recently, where I've managed to squeeze a new perspective out of a familiar place. Its almost like the more you look the more you see, but paradoxically the more you see, makes it harder to see anything. And or make the choices harder. (Am I making any sense?)

It’s a greater challenge to attempt a new perspective on a similar place, than to go to a new (photogenic location), because it forces you to push your creativity into new areas, ironically taking you out of your comfort zone. We learn most from our challenges!

It’s a little bit like life, when your 21 you really believe that you have the world sorted. And as you get older you realise that what you thought when you were 21 is in fact naive and that life is ‘a lot’ more complex than that. So extrapolating this what I'm writing now, what I'm producing photographically now, is indeed off its time and I shall develop (hopefully in the positive direction). So those locations visited many times will keep being productive ‘if’ i keep developing.

Anyway getting to the synthesis here, I feel that only a few months ago I wouldn’t have seen this shot, something has inspired me, challenged me to explore this composition. I will give credit to many of you out there in flickr land because some of you guys have both inspired and challenged my thoughts. Cheers guys!

Composing a shot, forces you to select only a small part of an environment, which you choose to present. And this shot to me particularly demonstrates that. When I saw the whole scene I liked it but it was only when I began to frame elements of it, did this part begin to work, (for me at least). I feel the opposing curves here are cut into by the framing, which creates a kind of tension and forces your eye back along to the other side. My eye moves back and forth horizontally, flowing around the curves in a figure of eight. I did consider taking the tree out to the right, (and when I shot this I planned as much), but after some reflection it has grown on me, as a kind of contrast against the smooth, something to break the flow. Something prickly to add tension.