p38 - Balance

I took a series of photographs which I'd taken over a period of several years. I chose them as examples of work which I had been pleased with and which appeared to fit the brief.

For the purposes of this exercise, I converted them to B&W in order to concentrate on composition:-

This scene of the old Coventry Cathedral attempted to contrast the sculpture to the left and the person on the right of the image. The balance is right, but the person on the right does not give meaning to the image. Also the columns are offset to the right which spoils the balance.

This image is of the canal lock near Leamington Spa, taken from the centre of the next lockgate to give a perfect mirror image. Apart from the trees, the image is almost perfectly symmetrical which captures the eye strongly.
This typical fishing scene was taken in Cornwall near Whitesand Bay. The prominent feature is the boat, but the lower rope leads the eye to the less obvious fisherman on the right. The upper rope has some seaweed mid way along which is a distraction which I might be tempted to remove.

Superficially, the image is unbalanced, but the detail of the fisherman and his nets helps to shift attention disproportionately away from the boat, resulting in a balanced image.
Again, shot on Whitesand Bay, the 4x4 and guitarist is prominent, both in size and tone. However, the number of people on the left of the image help to give some balance.

Overall, the image is unbalanced between the featureless sky and the activity on the beach, resulting in a photo which I don't believe works as well as it could.
In this portrait layout image, the balance is between the upper and lower parts of the image. Again, there is near perfect symmetry, although with tonal unbalance between the foliage at the top and the reflected image at the bottom. This could be adjusted in development, but wouldn't be an honest record of the scene.
In this film image, the shot is composed of six individuals. The mother is the prominent figure, placed left of centre to balance the two children dancing on the right. The child on the left and in the background give some weight to the left side of the image, helping to redress the balance.

The child partly obscured by the mother is really too indistinct to add significance to the image.