I recently began reading a facinating & informative book by Bryan Peterson called Learning to See Creatively and decided to do a 365 day challenge to myself implementing the techniques he describes in his book in an effort to become a better photographer and to “see more creatively”.

For my first exercise I decided to try the ‘SPAGHETTI’ experiment which I will document below.  I first heard of this exercise in an interview with Brian on the 7 Photography Questions podcast. I’ll quickly break the exercise down here, but if you would rather hear it in Bryan’s own words listen to episodes 20 and 21 of the podcast. The process is very simple and it is something that will lead you down a road that will completely open you up to things that you may never have envisioned before.

Let’s get started …

Grab a packet of spaghetti and a piece of white poster board around 2×3 or so or improvise with a towel or something if you don’t have any posterboard. The purpose of the poster board is to help frame your shot so pick any size you are comfortable working with.

The idea here is that you want to simulate straight lines on a page of paper where the lines extend off the edge of the page. In other words, none of the lines will come to an end on the page. The poster board will be our paper and the spaghetti our lines.  HINT: try mixing coloured pasta for an intriguing degree of contrast.

Grab the pasta in your hand, stand it up in the middle of your frame, and let go.

Compose your shot so you are looking directly down onto the pasta and adjust your field of view so that the ends of the spaghetti cannot be seen (ie.  the spaghetti should form lines that run off the edges of the frame)

After taking the first shot take another shot, again still pointing straight down onto the pasta ensuring that the lines run out of the frame but move around the frame.

You’ll need at least 3 different shots as indicated below with the lines being horizontal, vertical and another diagonal.

“Horizontal lines convey calm and tranquil picture, vertical lines show strength and dignity, while diagonal lines imply motion and speed. Changing perspective changes the message the photograph conveys, this Brian says is The Power of the Line.”

Moving On …

The next part of the exercise focuses on incorporating elements of shape and color.  Brian suggests adding a small red cherry tomato into the pasta pictures – you can choose.  Place your item of choice within the frame where you feel it best adds weight to your vision.

Don’t worry if you can’t “see it” … remember this is an exercise in “learning to see”. Here’s some more of my experiment …

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