Spaced Out

This week's blog circle theme is "negative space."  I decided to take a slightly different slant on the theme, as this blog has already covered the topic of negative space twice.  (If you'd like to read both, simply use the search tool and type in "negative space.")

When I decided to take my hobby of photography and turn it into a profession, I was given an assignment in one of my photography classes to go out and find a subject (positive space) and use the space around it to create a dramatic image.  So back in 2013, I created this image while walking a local back road and finding some feral kittens being taken care of at a barn.

It was actually this assignment that got me to thinking about "space" in images, and how the use of space can create a dramatic image.  This was a much larger image, as I could not get close to the kittens or they would run inside the barn.  The orange kitten with the blue eyes, thought I was a curiosity, so he stopped to check me out.  My spacing of the kitten in the eventual cropped image, the elements I've left in, and the scene itself, is all quite deliberate.  This image is an example of negative space, but also in how the use of space helps to tell the story.

The use of blue sky and clouds in the heron image below (and the particular cropping of this image), is again able to lend drama to the photo.  This photo was taken in Assateague during a summer vacation.  The space surrounding the subject is the negative space.

Whether in the studio or on location, using the space around the subject can lend itself to an image with more impact.  In both photos below, the negative space lets the eye travel to the subject, and doesn't hem the subject in, as a centered crop might (with equal distance to either side of the subject).  I find negative space a dramatical tool to enhance the use of light in a photo.

Molly, below, looks into the distance, almost like she is thinking about the great treat she is going to get once she is done with this photo.  This would be a much different image cropped down.

The use of space to enhance a pink-tongued black lab, makes for a fun image.  The darkness in the space to the right, brings the eye back to the subject again and again.

Back in the very first blog post I ever did about negative space, I noted that I would be using it more often.  That prediction was certainly true. I use images with space quite a lot.  If I'm not giving extra space, I am cropping dramatically.  I guess that has evolved to my own personal style.

Space is, after all, the final frontier. :)

Enjoy more interpretations of space, time, matter and anti-matter (well, maybe just space...) in this week's blog circle.  Start with Pawparazzi Pet and Animal Photography presented by Shae Pepper Photography.  Have a great Friday and rest of your weekend!