Fibonacci Spirals
After looking into “Golden Curves”, “Golden Ratios” or “Fibonacci Spirals” (whichever you want to call them) I have spotted a few examples in recent work (I think).
Godafoss waterfall
Godafoss, the waterfall of the Gods, is maybe my favourite waterfall to photograph in Iceland. The classic horseshoe shape found in many waterfalls. The horse-shoe shape is also reflected at nearby Asbyrgi where legend has that the hoof of the horse of Thor – the god of thunder – trod on the earth. Godafoss probably had similar stories until it became famous as a watery grave for ancient pagan idols to pave the way for the acceptance of Christianity a thousand years ago.
It is such a wonderful place in the Winter and definitely worth a visit, although access can be limited, the ice certainly adds drama.
I describe Godafoss as having a tourist’s side and a photographer’s side. The East side has a large car-park where tourists can get close to the falls in a matter of minutes. The West side has a kilometre of rugged track before you are on the opposite side from the tourists. Of course there are great shots to be had on both sides. On the tourist side, I often struggle with my 24mm prime. It is not wide enough to get the whole waterfall in from the best vantage points, so it is a challenge to crop the right parts of the falls.
Self portrait
This guy was taking a photo of himself. I was actually trying to compose the shot with him in it. He was having such a lot of fun and they were a very friendly group – considerate to us photographers. At just over 3 seconds, this was a very fast Magic Cloth shot, but each frame I have to hope he doesn’t move. This photo was quite a hit on 500px and then I started playing with “Fibonacci Spirals” to see if my composition fitted. The only way I could get it to fit was to rotate and then squash the spiral, so I am not sure if this image really qualifies.
Here is another photo later the same day. Taken from the “Photographer’s Side”…
We were very lucky to have nice conditions. The colours were not over-bearing, but I knew they would have post-processing power. For my composition I was obviously watching the position of the ice-form in the river, I was a close as was safely possible. I had to watch the rock at the left edge of the waterfall, I wanted the sense of the landscape rising dramatically without showing too much. The snowy bank was an obvious inclusion (although I had no choice but to include it). Let me show you how the Fibonacci Spiral fits over this image.
Vestrahorn Mountain
This next image was from the beach at Stokksness, looking at Vestrahorn. I was looking at the rocks right bottom and left bottom!! and I did have the golden spiral in mind.
What do you think?
