Motion pulse vibrates ticking optical pictures

A staccato rhythm is a broken, on-again-off-again configuration of disconnected repetitious parts. Some are legato involving sustained, connected, and smoothly flowing elements along a visual path. In her Color Workbook, Becky Koenig draws on ideas in music to describe different types of visual rhythm. They would suggest breaking up the repetitive rhythm with some anomaly, as in a scene where a quarter appears in a seemingly endless array of pennies. Personally, I often enjoy such images for their soothing, hypnotic consistency, like a steady roll of waves in the ocean or the ticking of a clock вЂ“ but I see the point made by the traditionalists. Depending on the visual and symbolic qualities of the photo, we might even sense an everlasting, eternal beat.ДЄccording to traditional concepts in visual design, the sense of motion created by a recurring element might become boring when it repeats itself without change, or is in some way very predictable. However, thanks to the Gestalt perceptual law known as вЂњcontinuation,вЂќ we might sense that the repetition does indeed go beyond the frame of the image, into the unknown space outside its boundaries. The borders of the photograph tend to limit the repetition, so we experience only one segment of the rhythm, one measure of beats. Because we usually perceive movement laterally in our visual world, the eye also tends to notice horizontal beats more easily than vertical ones. YouвЂ™ll notice that difference between smooth and jagged motion. Try moving your eyes slowly from left to right, then right to left. ItвЂ™s a visual beat.Д«ecause in many cultures people read from left to right, a repetition that moves in that direction will feel more natural than the opposite path from right to left, which might feel more tense and uneven. Your eye flows from one, to another, to another. Recurring elements create a sense of momentum and continuation, much like notes on a page of music. Repeating patterns and motifs can have a similar rhythmic feeling. When photographers talk about movement in an image, they often refer to the rhythmic effect of some visual element that repeats itself вЂ“ for example, people standing in a line, a row of birds sitting on a tree branch, or the chairs curving around the stool in the photo on the right. LetвЂ™s explore the different ways this can happen in a photograph. The mind perceives movement because the mind itself moves. When we look at an image, we can experience motion because the human mind miraculously creates it even though it might not вЂњobjectivelyвЂќ be there. We donвЂ™t have to ponder the considerably complex philosophical ideas embedded in this classic Zen story, but its basic point rings true for our appreciation of photography. 'Neither the flag nor the wind is moving. A Zen master, who happened to be walking by, overheard the debate and interrupted them. 'No, itвЂ™s the flag thatвЂ™s moving,' contended the second.

'It's the wind thatвЂ™s moving,' stated the first one. Two people were arguing about a flag flapping in the wind.

Motion pulse vibrates ticking optical pictures