This week, Egidio hosts the challenge. His theme is Two Rectangles in the context of a compositional tool. He writes, “By two rectangles, I mean you have two dominant rectangular areas in your image. For many people, this is one of those compositional tools we use without thinking about it. These rectangles give balance, harmony, and unity to a composition.” You can read his entire challenge post here.

My first photo was taken at Arlington National Cemetery. Ira Hayes was a World War II hero who helped plant the flag at Iwo Jima. Hayes’s story is complex. A Native American from Arizona, he struggled to cope with the war’s aftermath and the immense public attention he received. He was immortalized in “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” a song by Peter Lafarge and released as a record by Johnny Cash in 1962.

My photo of his headstone is a Photoshop manipulation I created a few years ago. At that time, I started seeing images created as a “pop-out” where the subject extends outside the photograph’s borders. The short version is that the image’s background is shrunk and rotated a bit, and then a white frame is created around the background, giving the appearance of a printed photo. The original of this image really wasn’t “two rectangles,” but by creating a second rectangle of the background, I think it qualifies for Egidio’s challenge.

Almost any image featuring the sky and the landscape below can be defined as two rectangles. I’ve always enjoyed photographing sunflowers, usually in closeups from the edge of a field. North Dakota is a significant supplier of oils and seeds from these beautiful plants. The lower rectangle features the vastness of a typical sunflower field as viewed from a drone at only a few feet above the field. The upper rectangle features fair weather clouds as the golden hour approaches.

Egidio had an example of a highway with the centerline as a leading line through the image center, dividing the image into two rectangles. I immediately thought of this image of the Gillespie Dam Bridge near Gila Bend, Arizona. The bridge structure at the top further defines the left and right rectangle symmetry.

At Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, a park dedicated to the Wright Brothers’ first flight features several sculptures. One lifesize sculpture recreates the flight with statues of both brothers and a full-size recreation of the aircraft. This photo was my own unwitting application of two rectangles. Rather than try to capture the entire scene, I focused on two subjects, the engine that generated power for this first flight achievement and one of the creators and pilot. It just so happened that the aircraft structure framed the two subjects.

As a volunteer for the Civil Air Patrol, I often flew missions in North Dakota for the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services. In many of these sorties, I was the photographer. In searching for rectangles for this post, I found many examples similar to this one. We were tasked with flying over bridges, looking for signs of potential problems. In this case, the road bisects the image, and ice chunks flowing down the river were butting up against the bridge structure, impeding water flow. The damming effect creates higher water levels upstream. When the blockage is severe, highway department equipment is dispatched to lift the chunks of ice out of the water to break up the dam. (photo credit: I photographed this image, reproduced with permission from the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services.)

As a passenger on a two-person glider, I have an excellent viewpoint for aerial photography as the pilot sits behind the passenger. The two rectangles of land and sky are obviously present, but so are many other rectangles reflecting the agricultural nature of North Dakota. The long, thin airport rectangle is the Casselton, North Dakota airport. Casselton was a home base for glider operations for many years.

Last week, Ritva challenged us to consider the background in our images and how it impacts the story being told. Next week, Tina of Travels and Trifles will host the challenge at noon EST on Saturday. Be sure to follow her so you don’t miss the theme. If you’d like to join the challenge but aren’t sure how to get started, check here.

One final note: Team member Donna of Wind Kisses is taking a break from blogging. The Lens-Artists will miss her challenges but look forward to a time when she might rejoin the team. My wife, Lynn, and I wish Donna and her family the best, and we share our thoughts with them.

John Steiner