Studying Photographs

 Image One

This image is a wide shot of a landscape that may have some surreal aspects; mainly in its colouring.

The viewer's attention is immediately drawn to the sun at the centre of the image. The sun itself is framed by the core of the tree, just as the branches begin to weave outward. I believe the lighting is mainly natural (from the sun) and it creates a contrast between the foreground and background. Unlike most photos, the background of this image is actually rather interesting because of the colour gradient created by the sunset. 

The colour of the tree and the hill is darkened to emphasize the contrast from the foreground and it further draws attention to the sun. Because of this, it could be debated that the viewer's attention is actually drawn to the foreground, however, this almost manipulates them to look along the tree - up to the sun; then along the branches and out to the background.

The horizon line is just beneath the sun at the borderline of the ocean and shows that the image follows the Rules of Thirds.

Image Two 

This image is at a low angle and is a close-up shot of a leaf, that guides the viewer to look at the stags in the background.

The camera is placed within an assumably large leaf; this enables the viewer to somewhat travel along the stem and lines of the leaf until they reach the background of the image. In my opinion, the background is more interesting than the foreground although it is quite interesting to see the exterior of a leaf at a closer angle. As the tip of the leaf extends upwards, the viewer also looks up to the stags.

Although the horizon line isn't exactly clear due to the curved sides of the leaves, we can see that it is the forest ground; also proving this photo follows the Rules of Thirds.