Technique: Lines

When I scout photo locations on the course, beautiful scenery is secondary to what I'm paying attention to.

I translate the landscape into shapes and lines, and runners into stick figures to transform the woods into an energetic visual language.

The Visual Language of the Trail

Composition is about arranging various elements such as trees, trails, stumps, stones, and runners, so they're visually appealing. It's better to reduce these elements to shapes and lines for the sake of composition.

Lines create a clear visual path, adding a sense of depth to the frame, and motion in the direction the line travels.

I want to guide your eye through the composition, along the runner's path, creating a sense of movement, emphasizing the runner through their gesture.

What Lines Mean

Straight Lines impart equilibrium, stability, and balance to the frame. 

Broken Lines add sudden bends, zig-zags, and acute angles, packing an intense amount of tension and motion into the scene.

The bend in the boardwalk slingshots runners into the frame, sending them down a diagonal path of energy.

Even a runner's gesture is packed with psychological energy; a contrast of obtuse and acute angles.

Those angles are packed with energy you can feel. The blur of the background heightens the feel of movement (slow shutter technique).

Curved Lines store energy in every bend, acting as a visual highway that pulls the viewer's eye. 

Broken or curved lines are a deformed straight line wanting to return to it's natural state, therefore packing more energy in sharper curves.

Comparing Lines (straight or curved lines, acute and obtuse angles). Creating emphasis or contrast between two lines such as a curved trail and obtusely angled runner.

A runner is a bundle of energy (lines, angles) on a trail that flows with movement (curved line).

The placement of a runner on the line increases the sense of movement through the runners gesture which is a combination of lines and angles.

My goal is to place the runner on the strongest point of the line to emphasize their movement and gesture, creating a visual path that helps the viewer to keep exploring the image.

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Mat Coker is a trail running photographer based in Ontario, Canada. He teaches visual art and photojournalism courses at Loyalist College.