Weekly Photo Challenge: Geometry

One of the great things about the Weekly Photo Challenge is that it makes me think. I have to think about what photograph to use, maybe I should go out and shoot something special, or, perhaps that photograph I took a couple of months back would suit the theme exactly. That’s what has happened this week, I’ve used something taken a while back but I think it suits the subject really well

Geometry is defined as the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties, relationships, and measurement of points, lines, curves, and surfaces. Personally, I was never a lover of mathematics at school, although after I left, it was a discipline I did have to learn and learn well. Nowadays I appreciate angles and shapes, whether they’re man-made or natural

And so to this weeks photograph, taken as the sun was setting, the Offa’s Dyke trail monument was silhouetted nicely against the setting sun. Yet, because of the angles and shape of this sculpture the front is well-lit.

The clouds as well are starting to form distinct shapes, the type we often see before a storm. Benoit Mandelbrot a French-American mathematician who is famous for his pioneering work in fractal geometry wrote;

Why is geometry often described as ‘cold’ and ‘dry?’ One reason lies in its inability to describe the shape of a cloud, a mountain, a coastline, or a tree. Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line… Nature exhibits not simply a higher degree but an altogether different level of complexity.

When I go out to photograph landscapes or I’m down on the shoreline, I always hope for a cloudy sky. Clear blue skies are nice but extremely boring, just like those awful grey skies we often get in winter. There’s no shape or pattern just an endless mass of the same colour. For me the best part of this photograph is the clouds, there are so many shapes and patterns and best of all if I wait another ten or so minutes, those shapes and patterns will have changed, giving me a completely different picture.