This photo was taken much earlier than the one above when I was experimenting with the background for my object but was of complete opposite of what I intended to do. This one had faster shutter speed of 1/30 sec where you can see the horses that was in motion clearly. The knight piece was still a subject in this picture despite being out of focus which was in the upper and lower right intersections of the rule of thirds. Meanwhile, the depth of field brought by the aperture really put emphasis on the carousel horses as well, creating a visual connection between the blurred object and the background.

Meanwhile, where could this mannequin be inside the mall? Well, I encountered her in the department store 😀. Chess pieces have queens and kings, and their difference that I categorized them with was their gender, and the area that I intentionally roamed in was the female section. 

In this photo, I wanted to really make the  connection of gender with the pieces. The way I position the queens and bishop was to have a visual pattern (as similar with how the ceiling and platform are shaped) and highlight the female mannequin behind (centered and intentionally out of focus to let the main object be in focus). 

This photo was also taken in the top floor of the mall where Timezone or the game area is.  It was natural to have this neon and flashy lights which I liked. But the reason I took this is because how the elements of direction (arrows) were similar to the movement of what rook pieces can do. In terms of composition, I placed the rooks in the left and right intersections as shown below similar to their positions in a chess board. 

This is another queen piece shot where I intended to make a connection between the piece and the poster with a woman behind it. Choosing a white piece here was necessary as the black one does not contrast well with the dark areas of the background. I decided to blur the foreground with wider aperture to direct focus on the poster as it was also composed with leading lines towards the poster.  Both the piece, and the poster are in the intersections in the rule of thirds.  The ISO here was higher compared to the photos I've taken, but having more leads to some noise and overexposure wherein the place was already well lit enough.

I really like this shot and wanted to make another where the chess piece was the one in focus. Having a lower ISO really works to put great detail with the object, the texture was made obvious that it is smooth and woody. Meanwhile, there is still the connection with the background, where the eye subsequently follows it with the leading lines.

What is a pawn? In a game of chess it was a piece that  represents an ordinary soldier. It was akin to mean ordinary people, and in my roaming, I was inspired to make this relation in this orientation that made it grounded where there is a play of curve line to make it visually interesting. I purposely did not put the pieces exactly in the intersection but the curve, so that there is a sense of movement rather than being constricted on a single focus of a single piece.

What does pawn do in a game of chess? It advances. In this photo, I captured a somewhat installation of my object. Pieces are placed in different heights, despite all being of the same rank or different in color, they can be the same or more than the other depending on where they are. There is a principle of repetition in this that made this conceptually apt and visually interesting. Having a portrait orientation really  give focus on the two pieces of equal height (that are in the intersections in the rule of third as shown below) in contrast with the others.

Pawns, as said earlier, advances.  When pawn reaches the end of the board it “promotes”, in this photo the composition tells the movement of pawns reaching the next stage and being replaced as a queen. The Dutch Angle really amplified the direction in this photo aside from the obvious leading lines in here made by the staircase and the way the pawns are arranged. While taking this, I was mindful of the rules of third with the queen being the on the left grid line while the front most pawn being on its parallel intersection on the lower right (although not perfect) which also contributes to the movement. Aside from these, having a wide aperture really make it easy to the eyes in where to start (from pawn to queen).

This is funny, because knights are supposed to be horses and not a zebra 😆. But I have taken this before the one in the carousel and I was inspired not just because it was horse-like but because of the pattern in the zebra. See the black and white pattern? It was similar to how the pieces are arranged.

Meanwhile, I used rule of thirds where the object fits on the upper middle section. There are also lines in the ceiling that direct the eye to the object. At the moment of taking, I had to take this photo in a hurry because a lot of kids were trying to ride on it. 

Again, the queens. This is my first shot that I liked, there are really a lot of cool ceiling lights in here that creates harsh light environment making the colors of the mannequin (like the hair) appear out of tone on the photo. The colors of the mannequin stood out to me because traditional depiction of women in cartoons or movies are blondes or pink. Setting up the WB to be warm really help in emphasizing the woman character in this composition.