Project Six - Rule of Thirds

Title – Lazy Summer Days
Tags- MacKenzie hanging, just relaxing, Lake Kedron & Digital Photography Class

For this assignment on the Rule of Thirds, I chose to take a photo of my daughter and I placed her face in the top right third intersection.  I used my ruler to ensure that I had MacKenzie’s face in the intersection of two of the grid lines.  I like the angle of this picture and the muted colors of the weathered dock.  I adjusted the saturation on the green for the trees to make them a little greener, but I did not want them to look cartoonish so I kept the saturation a nice level.  This picture was taken around 7 p.m. so we had some nice shadows and light in the trees.  I like that the trees are not equally bright because it gives a little depth to the picture.

I tried multiple crop arrangements to find one that I liked.   Since I did not shoot this picture at a straight angle, I have just a tiny bit of the sky showing in the top right corner.  I tried taking out the sky, but then the rule of thirds did not work well.  I am fine with the sky in the photo, but I would like to try this picture again with not including the sky, but maintaining the Rule of Thirds to see if that would produce a better picture. 
This assignment had value to me because it gave me an opportunity to experiment with the Rule of Thirds, which seems to me one of the most important composition rules.  I want to continue experimenting with this rule and try some pictures where the intersection is actually in the top left corner or another intersection point.  According to Ben Long, author of Complete Digital Photography, you can achieve the Rule of Thirds by placing elements at any of the intersection of the grid lines after you have divided the picture into thirds (horizontally and vertically).   After looking at my pictures, I realized I do most of my intersections at the top right corner.  I am not sure why this is the case, but it is something I have realized and will work to modify in the future.

I chose the title and tags to describe the photograph and for easy reference in searching for the picture in the future.  I exceeded on all the comments I made for my peers as I gave detailed comments and constructive feedback.  I enjoyed having the opportunity to look at my classmates’ pictures because it enabled me to see that the rule of thirds intersection point does not have to be at the top right corner.  I believe I could use this type of photograph in an educational setting on a lesson on intersecting lines.  It would be fun to get pictures and divide them into 9 quadrants and have the students find the intersection given the coordinates I would state.