Contrast, Balance and Harmony "Ball Is Life"

In this photo the eye has a tendency to jump all over the place right away. So much going on one might say. Why is there no balance to this picture? All the different shades are getting to me, but to me this picture calls out from a deeper point of view. Sports, the phrase ball is life, hits home with me really hard. My entire life has been based around sports and that is what I know. Like any match, tournament, game, ect... there is no balance. You never reach that comfortable stage in sports if you are trying to get better. 

This picture demonstrates multiple forms of contrast, size, texture, position and shape. The size of the balls ranges from basketball clear down to golf ball. Each ball has its own texture that you can see if you put your eye to the test it almost brings the feel of each ball to your hands.

This photo is clearly Asymmetrical as it is not really centered around anyone object and it is created with a number of different sized and shaped objects. What I was going for here is trying to test some tension with the un-balanced approach to taking the picture just the way I wanted it.

This photo wont have the same cultural or psychological effect on everyone as it does to me and other sports enthusiasts. As I stare into this picture it brings back years and years of competitions in each of these sports. I can look at the driver and golf ball and be taken back to my fourth place finish in the high school region golf tournament in 2008, or it can take me to winning the two man scramble I entered in the last week of July with a friend of mine. The softball glove, ball, cleats and bat bring back memories made with family and my best friends in softball tournaments over the past 4 years of my life. Basketball and shoes can take me clear back to the very first time I shot hoops with my dad when I was less than a year old. Or it can take me to those days and hours spent in a gym just drowning out the bad days while shooting hoops.

     

The volleyball up front really brings the balance out in this picture if you were to get rid of everything else in the picture. It is very symmetrical in the sense that all of the shades of black match up with one another right where you would expect them to.  

     

Harmony is found in this picture in two ways for me. The first being the light grey-scale coloring, not too dark and not too light, it sets a comfortable mood. The second is just the thoughts and memories it brings back to me that have a harmonic tone to them. The saying that is so commonly used with athletes now days is "ball is life" and this photo describes that saying perfectly, and for me ball really is life.