A bird, two couples, three telephone boxes, a table and chairs

Understanding composition is central to photography and other visual arts. Put simply it concerns the placement or arrangement of visual elements within the image, canvas or frame. It is about inter-relationships, shapes, lines, colour, space, foreground/background, and lots more. There are ‘rules’ that the purists adhere to, and the mavericks will often break: ‘rules’ are always there to be broken. We are all likely to spend a lifetime learning the complexities of composition and discovering new ways to interpret those fundamentals and develop our own ‘style’ compositionally.  I know I am still learning and the more images you take the more likely you are to spot a potentially interesting composition.

Today’s image is definitely one based on the arrangement of visual elements.

I happened upon this in Byng Place as I walked (as I do every month) across London from Euston Station to Oxford Circus and back – but only when it’s dry.  What appealed to me about this scene was the way my eye was drawn – curving up and right through the curiously placed table and chairs in the middle of a large expanse of paving (note the lone bird), and then back leftwards past three classic British Red Telephone Boxes to a seated couple.

I knew there was an image here, and as I switched the G10 on, I saw the couple approaching from the right. They were the critical element that completed the composition in my mind. Lady Luck smiled again. Do post a comment – I always enjoy hearing what other people think.