#BlogTogs - What catches your eye?

What makes an image stand out and catch your attention? Is it purely down to subject matter?

This week, following a prompt from the fab digital photography book I told you about in the last BlogTogs post, I took a series of photographs of an object - my dad's old Yashica slr - photographing it from different angles and not reviewing the images at all until I had transferred them to my laptop. I then created the contact sheet, putting all the images side by side to see if any of them popped out and grabbed my eye so I could then try and work out why...

When I look at this I am  mainly drawn to photos that capture the front of the camera. There are several straight on pictures - I particularly like the one at top right of contact sheet (no 4 below) but unfortunately it's not in focus ( I might go back and try this shot again sometime though...)

Grouping the shots together like this, my eye is instantly drawn to number 3 even though the others show more of the camera I like that it is off centre and there is no background clutter. These pictures have not been edited or cropped in any way yet. Cropping out unnecessary background is always an option with digital captures but it's so much more satisfying to capture the frame you want first time!


I like these face on shots but this second group of pictures where I have focused on the lens with all it's dials and numbers seem more interesting to me.

All of these shots concentrate less on the camera as a whole. The emphasis is in the detail. The dials used to fascinate me as a child. I had no idea what they meant but I knew that my dad spent ages adjusting them whilst we all stood in line in our best clothes for the obligatory 'family' shots. When I was allowed to use the camera myself (and I can still remember how cool that felt!) I discovered why it took him so long as I turned the dials, click by click, to get the scene to look how I wanted it. It's one of the things I miss the most in my digital camera with it's auto focus - and one of the main reasons why I want to learn how to use it manually!

So what have I learnt by doing this exercise?

For me it's the little things that are important. The details that combine to make up the whole. And I have also realised that there can be very personal reasons why an image stands out - it can evoke a feeling or a memory and that can make the image more powerful.

All the above images are as they came off the camera. But editing is as much a part of the fun of creating a good image as the original shot itself (and we will look at that a bit more in depth another time) so I had to have a play with the images!

Here are my overall favourites. Out of 29 photographs I have a set of three images that I really love...

I realise these pictures are quite personal to me - you will probably not feel what I feel when I see them. But that's what photography is all about for me; capturing a 'feeling'.

Why don't you have a go too? Pick an object to photograph, maybe something that is special to you, and really explore it - up close, from a distance, from above and below. Try something you wouldn't normally do. Study the results and pick the images that stand out for you. Ask yourself why. Is it the colour? The light or shadows? Is it the memory that the image evokes?

Blog it if you want and leave a link below if you feel like sharing.

Enjoy!