Last night, Carla and Steve took Logan and Lily to the Fall Festival at Logan’s elementary school.  It was Lily’s first time to wear her leopard Halloween costume, so we took pictures.  (Actually, Nana bought her a very cute ladybug costume which, when we tried to get her to wear it for the Renaissance Festival, we discovered she didn’t like it.  However, the leopard costume is a big success.)

There are two pictures from the set we took last night that I like.  One picture is interesting because of the content: it’s a picture of a cute toddler in a cute costume.  But if the content wasn’t so cute, the picture wouldn’t be interesting at all.  It is what I call a “literal” picture.

Ready to go to the Fall Festival
27 October 2006

The other picture is interesting due to the composition.  I like the use of the wide angle lens, the depth of field, Logan’s eye peaking through his fingers, the foreground/background assymetry of the photo — stuff like that.

Ready to go to the Fall Festival
27 October 2006

But sometimes you have to sacrifice content for composition (or vice versa).  In the second photo of the children leaving for the Fall Festival, though it was interesting visually, we don’t get to see Lily’s or Logan’s cute costumes.  Here’s another example.  This is Andrea Scher’s friend.  Visually, the photo is very beautiful and interesting, however, Andrea had to cut out her friend’s face to achieve the effect.  Would you rather see your friend’s face or have a visually stunning photo?  Tough call.  Both photos definitely have their individual appeal.  (Of course, by cutting out her friend’s face, his outfit and color become the subject of the photo, not the person.  She changed the entire subject with just a crop.) 

I guess the best pictures are the ones that contain both content and composition.  Perhaps the following picture contains both content and composition.  It’s a cute toddler laughing while having a bath in the sink.  You can see her playing with Daddy’s hands.  Juxtaposing a man’s large hands with the delicate hands of a child is always heart-warming for some reason.

Lily having a bath in the sink with Daddy.
21 October 2006

The following photo would be a “literal” translation of the same event:

Lily having a bath in the sink with Daddy.
21 October 2006

Still a very cute picture, but the composition is straight forward. Content carries the entire photo in the second picture.  Also, there is no metaphor, no poetry.  In the first photo, Daddy’s strong masculine hands gently playing with her small delicate hands are the representation of all that is Daddy — protection, strength, love and kindness.  In the second photo, Daddy is right there, and the poetry fades away as the story (Lily having a sink bath with Daddy) takes over.  (Don’t get me wrong, I like the second photo very much — I like their expressions and Lily holding her little foot up telling Daddy that it’s clean – but it is straight forward.)

These were just some thoughts I was having in my head while I was looking at the photos. 🙂