This is my submission for XDrive Photo Lesson 4 – Breathing Space.
(All photos were taken with Nikon D750.)
“White Space is where the world and all distraction falls away. Where the voice of the Divine can be heard. Where the Truth of who you are is found. Where miracles happen.”
― Valerie Rickel
Valerie said very well, didn’t she? Of course, not everyone feels the same way about white-space. I happen to be one of the believers.
Raj gave a wonderful lesson on white space (breathing space). I am not going to repeat what he said here; I encourage you visit his blog and read it yourself.
After taking a lesson, I often have a feeling that everything is more complicated than what we see on surface. White-space is no exception.
His Space vs. Mine
My husband is a good photographer. He has been shooting photos for more than 60 years (I started 4 years ago, in case you forgot.) We had taken some portraits for relatives from time to time (not too often). Each time after finishing editing his photos, my husband would give them to me to post on my Dropbox so people could download their photos, and, almost every time, I would secretly make some changes on white-space in his photos. Minor changes, I may say, but, it was something I just had to do. Apparently, he feels the same way about my photos. He often told me to increase/decrease white-space here and there, and I simply ignored him.
So, everyone’s breathing space may be different?
My Breathing Space Then vs. Now
I don’t know what others had experienced… after cropping my photos (in a few cases, before cropping), I usually could come up with the “right” amount of breathing space to fully satisfy myself (Satisfy “myself”, I said ;-). I would look at the photo for days and still be very happy with the result. But, sometimes, a month later, I might want to edit the photo again – the white space, for some reason, was no longer satisfy me.
So, my comfortable breathing space may change with time?
Finally, after the cropping exercise I did (see previous post), I have a feeling that there is a tight connection between the story you want to tell and the breathing space you allow your photo to have.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
HHC Blog 
The quote is very poetic. So glad to see your post of breathing space, Helen. It’s great to view your beautiful photos and read stories. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good morning, Amy. Thank you for your comment. So much to learn… Again, thanks for leading me to Raj’s lessons. I appreciate it a lot.
I tried to comment on your bird photo when I was in DC. Usually, I don’t write on WordPress when I was traveling, but I liked it so much so I did. But the comment never showed up… I didn’t know what I did wrong ;-( I should know the app better.
Have a wonderful day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for visiting my post while you were traveling. I like the bird shot, too. This is why I posted it the second time (I took the shot two years ago) 🙂
Your comment means a lot to me. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Helen–I love that you secretly edit your husband’s photo. I am not fond of rules, so I am open to suggestions, but, in the end, the suggestions have to make my photo pleasing to me. Photography is fun for me; too many rules would take out all the fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good morning, Lois. Actually, the very first time, I did have a short discussion with him. He thought his way was better, and I thought mine was better ;-). After that discussion, I switched to “don’t tell” mode 😉
I don’t like rules either. But after hearing them for a while, some have become natural instinct for me, I think. The good thing is… ha ha… since art is subjective, we can still have all the fun we want. It is, actually, for me, isn’t it?
Have a wonderful day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great to see you here Helen, great write-up on white/empty/breathing space! Yes I do agree we all have different envision of outcome, so the space depends on that.
Pic 1: in my opinion there are too many things here. I would have eliminated the trees across the water and just left the tree reflection in the water. Since the water is standing still there were clear reflections in the water which should have been take advantage of.
Pic 2: Spectacular!! Perfect execution of rule of thirds.. It’s a beautiful sky with lots of details. Every line is taking the viewer to the center of the frame. Very pleasing shot! How you could have enhanced this shot further? Check here.
Pic 3: Great picture again. Interesting thing here is you have layers of information. Makes the viewer’s eyes to travel from foreground to background one step at a time till he reaches the horizon! But in this case since sky is pretty ordinary so probably you could have put only 1/3 of the sky here. Right now it’s almost 50%.
Pic 4: Rightly qualifies to have the subject in the center. Composition could have been bit to the left so the subject has equal space on either side. Also the pic needs some tilt adjustment.
Yes I do agree that our perception of empty space changes time to time. It happens to be too sometimes.
This critical review is part of XDrive Photography learning sessions. Thank you for your participation
Raj
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pingback: Learn Photography – Review – July – XDrive
Sorry, missed inserting a link.. https://rkarkera.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/learn-photography-review-july/ I have added a info on this post of yours with my suggested edit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Learn Photography – 4 – Breathing Space – XDrive
LOVE the photos (and the posts with your lesson shares…)
and so true to this:
“After taking a lesson, I often have a feeling that everything is more complicated”
ha –
and wishing you a good week and be back later to check in some more.
peace
LikeLiked by 1 person