Photo 101: Keeping my edge aligned

/ March 25, 2015

As Photo 101 winds down in week four, I want to make sure I concentrate hard. You know. Keep my edge. Make sure I use these parcels of enlightenment to gain as much knowledge to make my blog photographs captured by my iPhone 6 and iPad Air as good as they can be.

So I perked up when I read Michelle’s lesson 18, tasking us to find a subject to place in our crosshairs to indeed literally demonstrate edge and enlightenment. I’d find great lines and lighting to … Nope. Not enlightenment. Alignment.

The Little Bitty in Syracuse, N.Y.

From the kitchen to the living room.

The Little Bitty my dear wife Karen and I share in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood was built in 1945. It’s had 70 years to get crooked, settling into its circumstances, if you will. We’ve done much updated since we moved in the summer of 2004, including new tile flooring in the kitchen and Pergo in the living room.

I’m not your man for such detailed work, so we hired a professional contractor friend as part of a whole kitchen remodel for the former and a handy friend as part of a other-wing floor-pick-me-up for the latter. This was four years apart.

So today I marvel at how well they matched up their lines to parallel and meet at right angles, including the seam between the two rooms.

I like the order in my surroundings. It comforts me. Takes that sort of edge off.

I snapped this one directly on my iPad Air. I also used its crop-editing-feature alignment wheel to straighten the image from my slight tilt when I climbed a stepladder to get an overhead view. I employed as slight a touch and close an eye as possible to present the image as level.

The bouncing sunlight at top right adds to my enlightenment and satisfaction. By the way, I know enlightenment has nothing to do with the light in my photograph. It was took much of an opportunity at wordplay for me to pass on.

Are you living in a newer place or older place, and what do you like about it? Can you keep the lines straight in your household, and how much work do you have to do? Can you think of a better way to employ edge and alignment in this shot?

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55 thoughts on “Photo 101: Keeping my edge aligned”

  1. Our house was built in 1926. Actually, rebuilt from one destroyed by fire. I love the sturdiness, the real wood frames on the doors and windows, and the real plaster. It also has a field-stone fireplace/chimney. Field-stone structures are pretty rare around here, so it makes the place kind of unique.

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  2. Dang, that looks great Mark. That’s your spidey sense – making you climb ladders to get photos – gotta be high. It is nice to see the work of professional builders – everything square and level and durable. I would not have even given that a second glance had you not photographed it – yet it is very attractive in the colors and alignment and contrast. Well done.

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  5. I’ll be careful not to comment longer than your post, but it will be hard.
    We have a 1920 bungalow. None of the floors are perfectly even, although the foundation is rock solid. There is gorgeous porcelain tile in my kitchen and back door area, which I hate, although it’s gorgeous. I am annoyed with its hardness — kills my feet (I cook ALAWT!) and everything shatters when dropped. I also despise the thresholds, which are quite a bump with a vacuum or when humans travel the house unlit. Ow.
    We have ceramic tile at the front door, but we both very much wish it either extended out into the entire entry or wasn’t there at all, because the carpet in the entry is the bane of cleanliness.
    At any rate, one day we will replace these floors, with some sort of engineered flooring, and I am hopeful they will be able to level our floors, bump and pain free. I dread the mess and chaos, but oh how I look forward to unity and clean entryways! 🙂

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    • You can comment long and unabridged, Joey. My house is your house!

      I like our ceramic tiles in the kitchen; so far, not too hard on the feet, calves or dropped belongings. Knock on wood. I know what you mean. When I walk or stand for even a minute on, for example, concrete floors, my entire lower body and even my back starts to ache. We went with the engineered Pergo in the rest of the house and left the hardwood underneath. The Pergo will be far easier to maintain, and if/when the time comes to sell and buyers are in love with the OK but need-sanding-and-polishing hardwood underneath, that’s the time for them to do it, when the house is empty. With our friend laying down the Pergo, we only had to empty one room into the others, one at a time, as he worked. To refinish the hardwood, we would have had to rent storage space and a moving van, haul our belongings to empty the whole house, get a hotel for two or three nights … Too expensive and labor intensive.

      I think when you and hubby decide to get it done, they’ll be able to level your floors by dealing with the underfloor first. That’s what our contractor/friend did in our kitchen. And if you do the whole place with like material, the threshholds will be easier, no stubbed toes in the night. Oh, how nice that will be for you! Carpet in the entry is a dirt magnet. Oy to that one, too. I do love that you have the bones of a 1920 bungalow to grow with, though. That is going to be one hell of a house, Joey.

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      • Thank you! We do love it. Her old bones are charming and I’m quite fond of all the old growth wood.
        Yeah, I don’t see us installing hardwood. We’ll leave what’s here, but the rest will be engineered. The ceramic tiles in the baths are fine, useful, easy to clean, and I never stand in there for hours.
        I’m considering buying a carpet cleaner, as I’m quite tired of the scrubbing the entry carpet. This time of year, muddy paws are a real chore!
        So yes, it will be great once we get it done. Whenever that might be…
        Secretly, I look forward to new floor trim as well 🙂

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  6. Older house that we put tons of work into. We did not worry about straight lines….we would have had to tear the house down. It’s very solid and we’ll built. But arches, and settling… 🙂 like you we left technical to professionals. It always pays off in the long run.

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  7. Always leave the heavy lifting to professionals. Especially when it comes to kitchens and baths. The only thing I keep in my toolbox is a checkbook.

    I misread “enlightenment” as “entitlement.” What do you make of that, pal?

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  11. I liked this post, saw the sunlight reflecting on the nice choices of lighter colors and modern patterns, Mark. I enjoy my older apartment, it is small, which is really a plus in keeping orderly and clean. I also like the people I have met where I live now. I think your place always looks homey, with delicious food, like on your St. Pat’s post, pretty furniture and of course, I think your choice in a wife, is perfect, too. All things aligned, ‘as they should be,’ Mark!

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  13. you had me there – I thought I had misread today’s assignment. Enlightenment? How am I going to photograph that?
    Just for that I’m not going to comment on how I like the contrasts both in texture and colour in your photo and the witty use of lines in the wood and the grid of the tiles. So you’re never going to know how great I thought your photo.

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  14. Pingback: Getting the most from Photography practice | SOMETIMES

  17. How are you doing, cuz? Lines? Pretty much in my house is square since hubby and I built it and oh yes we replummed walls that were not square that the rough framer put in. I was always running after those guys saying this is wrong etc. Over the years are front concrete steps have sunk as has our entrance to our driveway. But on the whole, things have remained straight. Your image for some reason brought me comfort, perhaps because it is so ordered? I don’t know. Good to see you learning new. Awesome!!! (((HUGS))) cuz from the west

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  19. Great interpretation and choice Mark! I grew up in an old victorian built around 1900 and there was nothing straight in that house! Now, in our 1961 government built structure (we’re in old air force base housing – but that’s another story) the houses have held up well so the alignment is still pretty good! I think this is a perfect choice for today’s assignment.

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    • Thanks, Katie. The Little Bitty has her ups and downs. But she shines up really nice for us. 🙂 It’s interesting to hear that the military housing has kept its alignment so well. Under orders, I guess. ;-o

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  20. Your blog is the third in my Reader list this morning, so I’ll attempt to create something astute from your third sentence: “Make sure I use these parcels of enlightenment to make my blog photographs….as good as they can be.” A bit of paraphrase there 🙂

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