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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Nine: Composition -- putting it together > Dragon Vane, Villa Montezuma, San Diego, California, 2004
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17-APR-2004

Dragon Vane, Villa Montezuma, San Diego, California, 2004

The cupola of this bizarre Victorian mansion is topped by a weathervane featuring a fierce dragon instead of the traditional rooster or directional symbols. Using a telephoto converter lens to enlarge the small weathervane as much as possible, I tilted the camera to move the dragon into the upper left corner. Holding the dragon there, I then gradually pivoted the frame so that its lower right hand corner embraced the seam on the corner of the cupola’s roof. The eye now moves freely on a diagonal axis from corner to corner and the dragon seems to be ready to spin on its vane. The deeply saturated blue sky and orange roof offer an appropriately garish color match for the green dragon with the arrow in its mouth.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/1000s f/4.0 at 28.8mm hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time17-Apr-2004 23:18:28
MakeCanon
ModelPowerShot G5
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length28.8 mm
Exposure Time1/1000 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent
Exposure Bias-0.33
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programshutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Phil Douglis09-Oct-2005 20:14
Glad to help you, Lisbeth. You are right -- everyone looks at images in different ways, and often wear blinders while doing it. If we can train ourselves to look at images in more than just one way, all kinds of possibilities suddenly become open to us, including those mysterious faces that often appear out of nowhere. That's what happened here for you, Lisbeth, and I am delighted you find it valuable.
Lisbeth Landstrøm09-Oct-2005 19:25
Thank you! How could I miss that diagonal S-line?? Now it just springs out from the picture - leaving not questions about the choice of direction. I was so focused at "starting" at the left corner and saw in fact a quite different picture. (Now the S even draws for me the contours of a face looking out at the direction of the arrow - connecting in another way the right part of the sky to the roof , but that is quite another story....). Thanks for the special support here!! :-)
Phil Douglis09-Oct-2005 18:00
Thanks, Lisbeth, for thinking about the directional flow of the elements within this image. I based this image on diagonal flow, starting in the lower right hand corner and drawing the eye diagonally through the image towards the upper left hand corner. The dragon looks to the left, which is critical here. I tilted the camera so that I could accomplish this. If the dragon had been facing the other way, the impact of the diagonal flow would have been diluted by the thrust of the dragons head in the opposite direction. I think the image still would have worked, but not as seamlessly. I know that many people are hung up on rules such as "always have the subject looking into the frame" but rules are made to be broken, and in this case, having the dragon looking out of the frame makes the image flow. If you see it as "untamed" and "wild" all the better. I've activated Lisbeth's imagination with this image, and that's what an expressive photograph is supposed to do.
Lisbeth Landstrøm09-Oct-2005 17:53
I like this picture a lot. And it brings a question up in me: If you had a free choice concerning the direction of the dragons head, would you still have chosen the direction as it is, pointing out from the frame? I would by pure conventional reflexion have "chosen" a direction into the center - however I do see that by this some of the abstraction created from drawing in the "out-of-frame" area would be lost. Furthermore the parallelity of the arrow and the lines in the roof would be lost and replaced by triangular lines - perhaps som more "calm" lines. A more "conventional" photo would probably also have been the result. Thinking about it, maybe that is why I instinctily like the photo: some of the idea is to show the non-traditional and "wild" direction-rooster. An untamed and more provoking composition might, for that reason alone, be the better choise....
Jim Chiesa29-Aug-2004 12:57
It's fascinating to look at this photo each time I read a comment herebelow, one can really see what you mean, Phil. I also join you when you indicate that distortion forces the eye to see things in a fresh and unlikely way.
Phil Douglis30-Jul-2004 04:32
Thanks, Henk, for the comment. I agree that my crop and the dramatic perspective (vantage point) has caused some distortion here. I look at such distortion as a positive, rather than a negative influence. It forces the eye to see things in a fresh and unlikely way, and as you say, it takes you right to the dragon at the top.
oochappan30-Jul-2004 01:06
I recognize this dramatic distort cropped perspectif as your eye re-adjust it in reality to the whole, on a photo the detail becomes dramatic, pussing you to the top. ( see my rooftop Gopuram)
Phil Douglis22-May-2004 17:54
Thanks, Likyin. And you are right. By tilting the camera so that the dragon whirls into the upper left hand corner, I have managed to put this picture into implied "motion." And that's what composition is all about -- putting everything into position so that the whole picture works to express its point. And in this image, the point is implied motion.
Guest 22-May-2004 04:42
Hah... Suddenly I felt that the whirling dragon was getting crazy and pulling out the whole metal cap! And then, flying straight to the clear sky, like an orange rocket ... wow ^O^

well, the inclined and abstract framing really works!
Phil Douglis03-May-2004 21:12
Thanks, Anna. I am delighted that my Dragon Vane shot brought home the critical importance of corner-to-corner diagonal flow for you. Practice it by tilting your camera and making things move diagonally instead of up and down or side to side. (Just make sure no horizon is involved, or you may disorient your viewers.)
Anna Yu03-May-2004 18:21
Impressive and effective use of diagonals. I really have to practise this too. Great lesson in this one Phil! Thx.
Tim May27-Apr-2004 21:23
Here I am taken by "line," (Although the color of the roof and the blue of the sky don't hurt any.) I love the way the line of the roof moves me into the picture up the the spiraling of the winged serpent.
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