Lines and Patterns

So in this photo, I tried what was said in one of the tutorials about using lines in landscape images. I sat on the bench and looked out and the pavement separation from the grass makes a line of it's own, then the benches also create this line that goes towards the horizon. I also thought that the benches, cars and trees made some repetitive elements. Probably not as strong as when there used to be a divider line in the middle there but I guess repaving did away with that.

A Blast From the Past

I found this Fisher Price wooden horse toy abandoned on a lone sidewalk. They don't make things out of wood these days so I thought it was quite a rare find. I wonder if it was really abandoned there or did some kid have the trust enough to leave it there? Under the shade of the car next to it, I decided to try and zoom in on it to get a good shot. The one above is the zoomed out view while the one below is zoomed in. I tried to frame it with the rule of thirds in mind but I guess I was kind of off? Again, it's rather hard to try and get a truly unfocused background when you can't go lower than F3.5. In the extra sunny conditions, I had to go up to F8.0 to get some of my pictures to not be so overexposed. It's really a trial sometimes to wrestle your settings into place when you're new to this. Anyone which one is better?

What-chu' lookin' at!?

Took this one on Sunday when I found this little critter digging for his meal in the dirt. I was actually kind of careful because I didn't want him/her/it to run off and at the same time I didn't want him/her/it to come biting at me either, you know. Still it noticed me and from time to time gave me that "look of knowing". I tried to frame him in correspondence with the "grid", though I really had to guesstimate where on the grid his face would end up. And I just noticed the darn twig sticking out of the top of his head which they always say to look out for. :-/