The photograph that stuck out to me the most was a photo of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City back in 2011 by Matthew Pillsbury. What I see in this photo is the action and the energy that is going on in the background. This is the reason why I found this particular picture to be visually engaging because of the energy and the excitement that you can feel from the people attending the parade to the balloons themselves. The main element in the photo that gives off the exciting energy is the blurriness of the balloon and the street because it looks like the balloon is speeding down the street in a burst of excitement. I also think that since the photograph is in black and white makes it feel kind of dramatic in a way as well. I still think that the picture feels energetic but the black and white also makes it feel frozen in a way, as if time stopped and this photo was taken. That itself makes the photo feel like a solid dramatic yet energetic moment in time that was just a perfect capture. The photo feels very raw and natural with the blurs of the objects and the movement of all of the people in the street. I think Pillsbury’s intention of this photograph was just to capture the pure excitement and the fast paced movement of the parade so that those who did not even attend the parade will know what kind of energy was involved in the parade. The whole mood behind the photograph I think is energetic and happy since it is the Thanksgiving Day Parade it is already pretty uplifting but it can also bring a lot of happiness because Thanksgiving itself is about togetherness and positivity and I think that this photo captured that.
The three photographic elements that I think this photo captures are Leading Lines, Diagonals, and Rule of Thirds. The Leading Lines technique is used in this photo pretty clearly if you look and see that the motion of the photo is leading itself into a direction of fast paced movement and it speaks for itself. The Diagonals in the photo also speak for themself because similarly to the Leading Lines the movement of the photo shows the Leading Lines as being diagonal. Lastly, the Rule of Thirds technique is used in this photo as well if you look at the balloon in the front that is not blurry then you would see that the edges of that balloon match up with the intersecting lines of the Rule of Thirds grid.
The differences between leading lines, diagonals and perspective can be small and the three can overlap but they are not exactly the same thing. Here I think perspective is predominant. These lines lead out to the distance not to the most important thing in the photo. Leading lines lead to what the photographer wants the viewer to llok at-the main subject of the photo. Certainly the implied line of the motion of the balloons is a diagonal and there are many small diagonal lines on the ground and even the street itself is a diagonal wedge.