One of the things that I teach in my workshops is to work the composition. What this means is to not just make one image. When you see something that catches your eye, make the shot that initially pulled you in then look for other angles moving the camera position around and trying new shots. This morning I found some great looking window boxes out in front of the Rockport Art Association. I was pulled in by this initial scene below.
It’s not bad, but in post I did nothing to make it better, like cropping in from the left a little more. Instead I worked the scene a little more with the following images.
These images are ok, but as I looked around I noticed that the window box next to it had what I was looking for. I placed the cabbage in the lower right corner leading up to the bright orange mini pumpkins in the left corner. I decided to have the cabbage (or whatever you call it) in sharp focus and the pumpkins a little out which helps your eye start out right in the middle of the cabbage. At this close distance f8 will still render the background out of focus which is what I was aiming for.
I love the way the flower here is in sharp focus and the veins of the leaf pull you up to the pumpkins and then the red berries pull you back around to the plant in the foreground again. So the viewers eye keeps moving around the image. Then as I was about to leave another composition pulled me in from the same window box but to the right of this.
The vine with the red berries pulls you up to the pumpkin then out to the left of the frame and then circles back in again. I love it when things come together.