Context/Setting - Focus

An almost perfectly in focus rose with a riverside setting in the background.  The feel is that the flower is the theme/object here.  Soquel River, Capitola Village.

Now the same shot but the riverside is now in focus.  The feel is now that this is a riverside theme.  Capitola Village.

A plant on a post (pile) is obviously the object of the frame...it's in focus and filling the frame in a prominent fashion.  The background is very out-of-focus but does give a good background "texture."  Humboldt Bay.

Pulled back, the still out-of-focus background adds more than just texture, there is a different setting and context.  The object in the foreground is still in focus.  Humboldt Bay.

That same setting panned to the right, a slightly different context with some aviary and motion.  Humboldt Bay.

Now almost the same setting but with the background more in focus and the foreground object out of focus...a different context.  Humboldt Bay.

Context - Marine/Maritime

A simple portrait (minimalism)... JLS perched on a post in Aquatic Park, S.F.  The post is right in the middle and JLS is slightly off-center and tops out at about 2/3 mark (1/3 from the top).  There is a lot of water space, but the way the object interrupts the space gives good balance.

The same setting pulled back... Now JLS is in a maritime context replete with boats, a ship and piers.  The post is in the middle, JLS is still a bit off-center, and the horizon hovers at around the 2/3 mark, but a little less.  The masts of the ship and boats help offset the sky space.  Aquatic Park.

 

I could have crouched for an angle to put the shoreline at the 2/3 mark but the object, JLS, would have interfered with the boats. Instead, the boats break up the water space.  There doesn't need to be 9-balance in every shot, but there should be some kind of balance.  JLS is to the left, the boats...to the right.  The middle ground and background are out of focus, and the object in focus.  Just as it should be.  Aquatic Park.

The horizon is right at the 1/2 mark, but the masts offset the sky space.  Some cropping on the bottom and this would be a good pic.  Aquatic Park.

Telegraph Hill with some maritime flavor, from Aquatic Park.  The world is tilting a bit to the left here.  A flaw of mine that I'm working on to correct.  I choose to frame all my shots through the optical viewfinder and not the LCD of my camera.  I want to see with my own eye what I'm actually shooting.  This tilting can be corrected with a good image editing program that lets you adjust rotation by degrees.

Ghirardelli Square, Aquatic Park.  Now the horizon could be viewed at the bottom 1/3 of the frame (the shoreline).  The interval of the boats gives a pattern that lends some depth to the image.  Try to visualize... 1/3 water, 1/3 cityscape, 1/3 sky... It's there, just broken up a bit.  Maybe a bit of cropping on the bottom could have helped, too.

 

A clearer day in Aquatic Park.  Frame-cropping down may have produced an image with better water, land, and sky balance of Telegraph Hill.  But sometimes that may not be possible given the position.  Image cropping on the top could bring the sky space more in balance with the water and land and give a more panoramic look.

A lot of sky here.  Cropping the top would bring it more in balance with the water and city, and of course, get that panoramic feel.  This shot is "the" classic San Francisco City skyline.

I may have been trying to capture a little too much here.  Zooming in a bit, and frame-cropping the bottom to get just the hull and masts may have been better.  In hindsight, I think I should have taken more shots, frame-cropping, zooming, and from different angles.  One of them would have been a winner.  Aquatic Park.

 

Some images can look good, and have good balance, but the context is a little busy and hard to figure out.  In the foreground is a pier, and the middle ground is a ship and it's own pier, and the background is Telegraph Hill and some S.F. skyline.  Aquatic Park.