Exploring the square 

using a symmetrical and well balanced frame

Shooting in square format can be fun and challenging.

The square is a relatively simple format with a clear center. It tends to lead the eye of the viewer in a circular instead of a straight horizontal, vertical or diagonal motion. The frame can be divided symmetrical into several smaller squares, which can be use to create a well balanced composition.

In order to get a feel for the square format it can be useful to shoot standard rectangular images and crop them into squares afterwards, taking the time to decide which parts to crop away to get the most compelling image.

Here's what i managed to do with four shots of a bunch of flowers at my dad's house, trying to emphasize the color of the flowers and leaves, cropping out the distracting elements like the chair in the background.

Tracey gave me some creative coaching and encouraged me to be more bold in my cropping, so below is how i applied her comment to the first of the images. I think it really improves the impact of the image.

I spent the rest of the week capturing different subjects in my squares

Here are some squares within a square......

Some squares with circles.......

Three squares with different subjects but lots of negative space.........

Loads of long straight lines in these squares........

Squares capturing shadows.......

A collage of brightly colored squares.........

Squares are an ideal format to tell a photo-story.

Here is a sequence about my breakfast, how I made it and where it ended up :-()

The square-collage can also be used to display different views on a singular subject.

Here i have captured parts of me in a square portrait collage.

Capturing what you love

Shooting with passion 

It is important to find a balance between shooting with intent, planning the composition of our images and shooting intuitively, capturing what catches our eye. When we manage to integrate the two, our images will have all the more impact

My favorite subject matter is reflections. I love to capture anything that in any way reflects some of it's surroundings, be it water, shadows, glass, or shiny surfaces.

Here I have captured reflections of myself in my favorite stainless steel mugs. I especially like the way my reflection is divided in two by the two stacked teacups.

Here I have played with the small espresso mugs, placing them in a row and changing the angles and depth of field.

These are my favorite teacups. I love their shape and their colors. I stacked them in different ways and took shots from different angles. Unfortunately the stack collapsed and one of the cups lost an ear.....

Here i have placed them in a row and played with the depth of field, creating a lovely bokeh background.

Creative and intuitive use of lighting, depth of field and positioning can make your subject matter really come to life. You can give it personality or create relationships between subjects and their background.

Here i have used positioning and depth of field to emphasize the relationship between the wooden spoons: they are similar but not identical, they have different sizes and colors.

In the second image I have tried to convey the relationship between the curves in the woodgrain and the wavy lines of the 'filet americain' in the plastic bowl.

The way the blue winter scarf is folded, the way the shadows and highlights emphasize the curves of the folds and the lack of context and other colors give this image a strong sense of personality.

In the second image I have tried to emphasize the contrast between the liquid in the glasses. The glasses are the same but their content is different: the left glass contains more liquid and is transparent with a dotted silvery swirl; the right glass contains a more opaque dark brown liquid with gold colored rays and squares in the bottom.