Colour harmony through similar colours

Green and yellow

This photograph was taken during a late summer balloon festival in Northamptonshire. What began with one solitary balloon soon turned into a sky filled with them. There were a few of the exotically-shaped variety, but the majority were of the classic shape seen in this image. The spectacle was a riot of colour, but occasionally a balloon of 'quiet' colours floated by. Such is the one seen here. And they, of course, were really very quiet, with the only sound being that of the 'woosh!' of the burner's flame heating up the air inside. To be honest, I would prefer the green and yellow to be brighter and more saturated, but begging photographers can't be choosers...!

Yellow and orange

This photograph represents one of those moments when what we have been studying eases its way into our conscious mind and calls our attention to something we should see, look at and take notice of. And this is what we are in the business of: taking note. With our eyes and through our lenses. And further yet in the fashioning of the final image through editing and processing. Here is the dance of photography: the subject calls out to us and we, through the art we study, call out the framed image to whoever views the finished work.

Here, the colours, textures and the object are 'everyday' items. The rough and smooth brickwork, the cold metal and shiny plastic of the tap. But even in this normality, colours that are similar vibrate with one another. The pale orange of the smooth brick and the bright yellow of the plastic hose connector. Even in this 'everyday' context, someone had to make the choice of colours and textures. The photograph simply gives witness to that.

Orange and red

Here there is a clash, a struggle being fought out in the arena of the fruit bowl...! The quiet red apples, although similar to the brighter oranges, are being set upon by the flashy yellow lemon. Maybe if I had taken a second, more mindful look at this image, I would have realised that the harmony between the reds and the oranges would have been a calmer, more subtle affair without the yellow invader... As it is, the lemon brings dissonance to this otherwise tranquil kitchen scene. So for me the 'moral' of this picture is: 'Snap less - look more'...

Yellow and green

This is an almost universal image of late spring, of May, of the rising of summer's curtain, just before its grand entrance. These fields of rape seem to appear like a secret invading army that stretches as far as the horizon. The yellow burns bright like the sun and sings in tune with the electric green. In a way, these fields offer the photographer an image that has no need of a caption, but only time to gaze at and lose oneself in these immense expanses of lush colour.