Here is a sweet diagonal line that disappears into the nether reaches of the picture.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it’s too high to fit the header nicely.\u00a0 Needs to be narrower.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/IMG_8085.jpg\" "\\"Wilson")
<\/a>Early Line Hunting Attempt - Not Narrow Enough<\/p><\/div>\n
So far, I’m sold on bridges.\u00a0 Their photos make excellent headers.\u00a0 Riding to church one Sunday, we rounded the corner and I got a view of the Memorial Bridge stretching from D.C. (where we were at that moment) to Virginia, from the Lincoln to Arlington Cemetery.\u00a0 I wasn’t even thinking headers right then, yet the idea popped into my noggin:\u00a0 That graceful, elegant line would make a great header shot.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Three lovely lines: bridge, shore, horizon<\/p><\/div>\n
I’m pretty sure this affinity for lines is yet another of the many common traits between me and the General.\u00a0 Mt. Vernon is awash in lines, horizontal, vertical and in-between.\u00a0 His gardens and orchards and walkways and yes, especially his house: lines, lines, lines.<\/p>\n
<\/a>I tried to capture the mansion and trees as one line, but I don't think that stately house likes being upstaged. <\/p><\/div>\n
It’s amazing how many lines surround us.\u00a0 It’s also amazing how when you get something in your head, like looking for nice lines for your blog header, it’s hard to get it out again.\u00a0 I work in an unattractive government building I’ve never liked the looks of.\u00a0 The other morning, walking toward it from the end, I suddenly saw it as a fascinating, almost pretty collection of lines.\u00a0 Actually, this low-slung city has nothing but buildings that expand horizontally rather than up, a good thing when you’re looking for header shots.\u00a0 Congress established D.C.’s height restrictions in a 1910 law stipulating that a building in the District of Columbia could not be any higher than 20 feet more than the width of the street it fronts.\u00a0 Congress enacted the law to keep modern skyscrapers (which being mostly vertical wouldn’t work well photographed for a blog header) from being built here and dwarfing the grandeur of the Federal City.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Don't let security catch you taking pictures of a government building's nice lines.<\/p><\/div>\n
The header line does not need to be an exact line as if drawn with a ruler.\u00a0 It could be a row of flowers or maybe even rental bikes, just as long as the row forms a line that fits the header.\u00a0 This one is not quite narrow enough.<\/p>\n
<\/a>I see lines everywhere!<\/p><\/div>\n
I like diagonals, though the header space is so narrow, top to bottom, the slant needs to be very gradual.\u00a0 I noticed a couple of people giving me an odd look after I took this shot.\u00a0 One lady smiled at me in what I thought was a sort of sympathetic way (Odd fellow snapping newspaper boxes.)\u00a0 I suppose it’s an artist’s occupational hazard.\u00a0 By the way, this picture would be even more boring than it is if that brown box were in line with the rest.\u00a0 That it’s off kilter makes this lineup interesting.\u00a0 Uh…sort of…<\/p>\n
<\/a>Did you read the headline?<\/p><\/div>\n
An artist expresses an interpretation of reality.\u00a0 The artist uses words, music, paint, clay, acting, dancing, photography, textiles and more to portray the world as he or she sees it.\u00a0 I’m clearly not a photographer, but even a word-man like me can begin to notice things.\u00a0 Like large vents placed in the sidewalk.\u00a0 Honestly, at this point of my line walk (not to be confused with a line dance), I was seeing lines everywhere.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Don't grill me about the line thing<\/p><\/div>\n
Things like headers, trim that runs the length of a building, traffic cones, and a thousand other lines give us what we think we don’t want but actually crave: boundaries.\u00a0 Lines give people safe places to play, to work, to live and love.\u00a0 What a gift a horizon, a row of trees, a line is.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Out of header shot ideas? There's always the horizon.<\/p><\/div>\n
Enough with the line thing, already!\u00a0 Put a lid on it.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Sewer line? Water line? What's my line?<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doggone it, I’m a word guy, not a graphic artist.\u00a0 But give some poor writer a blog, and all of a sudden he’s looking for lines. Actually, what I’m looking for are attractive header shots.\u00a0 Though the verbiage is the … Continue reading