Use of Diagonals

What's better than a rusty nail? Two rusty nails of course.

Notice in both of these rusty nail pictures that I have made sure that the wood grain runs diagonally across the frame. Try the same thing with the grain either vertical or horizontal and the picture will appear much more bland. Diagonals will always add a bit of tension to any subject.

The main difference between this photo and the single nail is of course the angle of view, this one is straight down to the wood allowing me to get the whole frame in sharp focus. It has a very two dimensional feel to it and would be known in camera club circles as a 'pattern picture'. This is one of those euphemisms that judges use which means 'I quite like it but what the hell were you taking a picture of'.

Sometimes it's just nice to have pictures of interesting textures.