Ah, it really has been a long time now. But once, in the distant past, when I was still photographing professionally, I was very consciously working on composition rules. Most people who consciously work on photography can dream up the most well-known ones. You have the Leading lines (the theme this week), but of course, there is also the much more well-known rule of thirds, and the slightly less well-known golden ratio. I had it all in my head, and everything had to be exactly right. I worked carefully and took the time to perfect every line and angle.
The photo I am posting this week for this week's theme, a photo of the Moerputten bridge in s-Hertogenbosch, is a real example from that time. I took it when I paid attention to those lines, to how they lead your eye through the image and make the picture stronger.
But these days things are seriously different. I have completely thrown professional photography out of my system. I don't do it anymore, and if I do take pictures, it's only for myself. And then I just click what I like. I have changed from a professional photographer to a snapshot clicker, and I don't think too much about rules anymore. I am no longer so strictly occupied with jargon in my head, but much more intuitive and free. And that feels good. But even though I am no longer so consciously occupied with it, that fascination for leading lines is always subconsciously present. It seems as if they are ingrained in my visual DNA.
Leading lines can be found everywhere. In a street that you pass every day, in the shadows of a fence, the edge of a jetty, or the branches of a tree that are in the sun. They guide your eye, give depth, and make the picture more exciting. And that doesn't have to be complicated at all. On the contrary. Often, the simpler, the more beautiful. And the more everyday, the more special it can be.
But now back to my photo of the Moerputtenbrug. Many of you will not know it, so I will give a brief explanation. It is an old railway bridge of 585 meters, in the middle of the nature reserve De Moerputten near 's-Hertogenbosch. The bridge was built from 1881 to 1887, and the first trains passed over it at the end of 1890. In 1972, the bridge was closed, and in 2004, restoration of the railway bridge was started to protect the vulnerable nature from the poisonous red lead that ended up in the water underneath. This restoration was paused in 2007 and resumed in 2009 to be finally completed in 2011, after which the bridge was finally reopened to walkers. The bridge is located in a beautiful marshy area where a lot of peat used to be extracted. These days, it is a nature reserve where you can walk and enjoy birds and plants. The bridge itself is made of steel and concrete, and to stay with the theme of this week, consists of long lines that force your gaze to look further than just the point where you are standing. That is what I tried to capture in my photo, then, the seemingly infinite bridge. At the same time, the bridge forms a powerful line of concrete and steel that splits nature in two.
If I were to take that photo again now, I would probably approach it very differently. Much looser and more intuitive. Perhaps with a different angle, and especially less concerned with the perfect composition. It would then be less 'regular' and more following my feelings. I don't know, it's been a long time since I've been there ... Who knows, maybe again soon.
In any case, we see the power of Leading Lines here; they are, as it were, visual routes for your eye. And consciously or unconsciously, our eyes always follow those lines. They are everywhere, and they always work.
