Project 52 - Week 3: Negative Space

Negative Space is another one of those areas we covered under Duchemin's "The Visual Toolbox."  It was actually this previous jaunt with negative space that made me consider how to work it more into my photography.  In fact, since that time, I have really been using negative space quite a bit, not only with my own animals, but with client pet photos and yearbook senior pics.

I think it is a very effective tool, and one that I now look to create, rather than happen upon by perhaps not lining my shots up exactly as I wanted them.

First, let me say.  This is a cell phone photo.  My cell traditionally does not take good photos, but I was very careful this day to set every setting I could on it and generally turn it into a manual camera.  I knew I wanted to capture some negative space in this photo (the shed row turnout), and Friday, the horse you see, cooperated fully by walking from his knob on the pasture hill all the way up to where I was standing to see exactly what I was doing, and/or if I might have anything that would interest him. 

If you know and photograph horses, you know that most of them are as curious as cats.  So they will eventually investigate.  Normally, we might add the negative space in front of the animal to showcase an area they can "walk off into," but in this case, the negative space shows the area Friday covered to get to me, the place where he wanted to be.  So it isn't always about leaving space in front.  Not if you are telling a story, and not if you understand the thought process of some horses.  Now, if Friday were running in a field, I might have left the negative space in front of him, because I would have wanted to show where he was running to next.  In this particular case, he wants to be standing still, and even more than that, he wants me to have a cookie.  But I did not.  And even if I did, I would never hand feed him.  We don't hand feed treats to horses in my world.  They get plenty of treats, but in their buckets.  This way they can't later confuse my hand with a treat machine and try to nip at it.

I do like the angle in this.  It was later in the afternoon and there was no snow.  I added that to the photo.  It was a relatively dreary day and I had only this horrible picture taker cell phone with me.  I would have liked to have had an off camera flash.

Last Saturday, I took Billie to work with me.  I am lucky to be able to take a dog to the office, and Billie has read the office etiquette manual and has that nailed down, so she is very good at keeping me company.  I decided to devote some of my lunch hour to grabbing a photo of Billie that would showcase negative space.  There were a few things I didn't count on.

I didn't count on the 5, 296 squirrels that were out that day.  This made dropping the leash a real crap shoot.  Will she run?  Won't she run?  And will I ever get her to look at the camera?  Here the answer to the camera question is "NO!"  The other thing I didn't count on was the lack of good light.  I seriously think Pennsylvania needs to change it's name to Grayland.  I did end up using a diffuser on my camera flash, but I needed about five more hands--one to hold Billie, one to put on my flash, one to attach the diffuser....AAAAUUUGGGHHH!!

I work at a Nature Center, so we are really out in the woods.  It's very hard to be treeless in this setting, but I don't mind trees so much.  I think this one is kind of gnarly.  That branch stretched out like a tentacle, it seemed to go everywhere.
The background was naturally blurred by the lens, Billie stayed put, and I left quite a bit of negative space to her left.

Because of gnarly tree, I tried one more shot.

This time the photo is taken straight on, instead of below her.  It makes Pennsylvania look less gray, don't you think?  It started snowing just about this time, and after work I had a joyous time maneuvering home on bob sled runs that used to be roads.

I do think it is important to plan out where you want your negative space to show up.  Negative space is another tool to help you bring more attention to a subject, but it also can be used to tell a story or send a message.  You see it used quite a bit in advertising.  Open a magazine and thumb through to see how many different photos you can identify with negative space.

I've seen many different takes on this application, and hopefully, you will too, by continuing onward through this week's very large blog circle!  Start with Pavlina Sanborn Photography, serving Southwest Florida, and make your way around the circle until you are right back here again.  If you hit a blog link snag, come back later in the day.  Most snags are repaired by blogsters within several hours of the initial "go live" postings.  Happy Friday!