Phi and Mathematics in Photography. Nature by Numbers

I adore photography! Yes, you all know that. The more involved I become, however, the more I reazlize how beautiful and complicated photography can be. I just finished up taking some pictures for submission into this month's dgrin contest. These challenges always stretch my abilities as a photographer. The theme for this round is "Golden Spiral" or "S-Curve".

The human eye is attracted to images that follow these compositions. The golden spiral composition, for example is mathematically based on Phi ratios and is sometimes called a Fibonacci sequence, Golden Mean or Golden Ratio. I will include a link to a BEAUTIFUL video based on these compositional principles. Sometimes these compositional principles are called "God's Fingerprint" as many natural wonders are composed according to these Phi ratios. Beauty is mathematical... and composing a photo in such a way as to capture the composition is key to a beautiful image!!!!! I will include my entry (one that I had a lot of fun making), and I will also attach the 2 others I considered entering. In all, I narrowed it down to two "Golden Spirals" and 1 "S-Curve". The one of Kaitlyn I just couldn't resist :)

Here is the amazing video. It is breathtakingly beautiful and shows the compositional elements in nature (one that a photographer should aspire to capture)


Here is the photo I ultimately submitted (complete with Golden Spiral Overlay)...




My S-Curve option:



2nd Golden Spiral Composition

I won a photo contest!

WOW! I'm so honored---and $250.00 in prizes richer!!!! I won the Digital Grin Sharp Shooters Contest #46 (Theme: GREEN)!!! I have been a member of Digital Grin (Dgrin) since September. It is there that I have learned so much about photography, lighting and manual shooting. There are so many top pros there and they kindly share their knowlege and expertise, so that others will progress. This site regularly host contests and when I saw this month's theme as Green I just knew I had to enter! And I actually won!

There were 57 entries into the Green gallery. A panel of 2 judges selected 14 photos (7 each) and then it was open to public vote for 72 hours. Here is the inital gallery and the results poll.

Green Gallery:

http://challenges.smugmug.com/Other/DSS-46/11443304_J7WRw#809319358_Xym2d

The results poll:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=162761

I get to judge round #49 and I also win a $149.49 Pro account/website on Dgrin and $100 in photo prints/gifts. Hooray, I'm so happy!!!! And so honored!

PS Excuse the photo quality. I have reduced this file to nearly the smallest viewable...200x300. Not even printable! No theft of my photos allowed :)

Innocence

Innocence
Originally uploaded by kidzmom2009

This will be a quick way for me to update with photos onto my blog! Hooray for convenience! I've recently joined flickr to help me progress with my photography...It is a wonderful place to share ideas and technique as well as receive commentary on photos. On my first day I had one photo placed by a group moderator into a gallery for "World"s Best Photos"... Lovin' that! I'll post that photo soon too. It was a keeper! A short session with Evan napping like a newborn. So now I have found an easy way to update the pics for blogger. I've been bad about blogging, but very very very good about taking lots of pictures (just not posting them here...now I will :)