Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Symmetry

/ Pat

Symmetry

I’ve been going through old files looking for symmetry for this week’s photo challenge hosted by Patti. This is somewhat of a challenge because I tend to prefer asymmetry. Everything is a little off center and although balanced, there isn’t really symmetry. But I do have a healthy imagination so I began to see a “sense of symmetry” in most every photo I looked at – like the symmetry formed by centering this weight seen at low tide at a boat landing on Nova Scotia’s Digby Neck in Canada’s Maritime Provinces.

Or this sculpture of a fall leaf at the Hidden Lake Gardens (owned by Michigan State University) south of us here in Michigan, in the area known as the Irish Hills.

We took a ride through this wooded garden last Saturday but I forgot my camera – I know, how silly of me. The trees were just beginning to show color so this image from a couple of years ago is a great alternative to the symmetry of a real leaf.

My last example of symmetry is a photo from several years ago of morning glories blooming on my front porch railing. They are my favorite flower with their clear blue blossoms that look and feel like silk.

Yes, it is a bit of push to use this for symmetry but if you look hard you will see how the growth pattern is sort of a mirror image if you draw a line down the center of the middle growth.

The real reason I used this photo is that I have continued to plant morning glories in this space but haven’t had any blooms for the past two years. This year the plants grew so thick that they created a wall of green and every other day I had to cut off new vines that were threatening to take over my purple porch swing and grow across the entrance blocking delivery people from leaving my packages. But not a single blossom. I did some reading and realized that we had taken out three big shrubs that starved previous plants, and this year I wanted blooms so badly that I fertilized them. They thrive on neglect in poor soil. The perfect plant for me except in Covid years when I don’t have much to do but nurture the plants in my garden.

This has been so much fun that I just might keep looking through my photo files for other examples of almost symmetry. Thanks, Patti, for hosting this weeks challenge.

21 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Symmetry”

    • Thanks, Lola. I love them too so it is really painful when i plant them and they don’t bloom. I’ll try next year and see how they do if I plant them close to the small shrubs and don’t feed them any plant food.

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  3. Loved your choices Pat – so glad you told us the opening image, which I absolutely loved, was a weight. I’d never have guessed! And I had to smile at your comment about over-nurturing your flowers due to COVID. My smile for the day.

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  5. Hi, Pat. It’s fascinating to hear how some people love asymmetry and others prefer the opposite. I suspect it’s the way our brains are wired. I even go so far as to straighten my fork and knife when I sit down to eat at a restaurant!! Funny. But…your images are great examples of symmetry. I am especially drawn to your second image. Lovely, lovely. The colors, the composition, the natural symmetry. Beautiful.

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  10. I too prefer asymmetry. A friend arranges ornaments equally, either side of centre on a mantelpiece, for example.

    To my eye they seem fixed in place, knowing their place, static. In contrast, asymmetry seems lively. Maybe it is just the wiring of my brain, but my leaning is towards asymmetry.

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