For our weekly challenge, Ben Huberman asks us to demonstrate examples of geometry in photography. From the challenge post, he comments, “This week, explore the ways lines and shapes can converge in interesting ways through photography.” You can view the entire challenge post here.

By strict definition, lines that converge are not parallel, but eventually meet at a convergence point. However, our eyes trick us into believing that no two lines are ever parallel, and all lines meet at some point in the distance. Though the sidewalk along the beach has edges that never meet, it surely appears that if we keep walking into the image, the sidewalk will disappear from beneath our feet.

Most often, when I have my camera in hand, I am focusing on natural landscapes, but I also find manmade objects in my images. In this image, taken from an aircraft at about 1,000 feet above ground level, the parallel street lights converge at some point in the distance. Photos of landscapes and objects often appear to recede into the distance and feature a “vanishing point” that converges into a single point. This small gallery of images features examples of the perspective that converges in the background. I submit for your parallel inclination images where lines appear to come together at some perceived junction at a point in the distance.

One of my favorite photos demonstrates the effect, so I cannot resist featuring it again. Obviously the tanker cars are all the same size and shape, yet our eyes shrink the objects in the distance until they all but disappear.

John Steiner