Golden - Montreal's South Shore photographer

There's the golden rule:

So then, whatever you desire that others would do to and for you, even so do also to and for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. ~Matthew 7:12

And silence is golden:

But that's not what I'm talking about today. I wanted to share with you about the Golden Mean (or Golden Ratio), explained here:

Ratio refers to how one measurement relates to another. The ratio formed of 1:1.618 is called the Golden mean - the ratio of bc to ab is the same as ab to ad. If you divide each smaller window again with the same ratio and join their corners you end up with a logarithmic spiral. This spiral is a motif found frequently throughout nature in shells, horns, flowers, etc.

In  other words, visual art requires math. (Something you can tell you 12 year old.) And that math can look a little something like this:

Why am I telling you this? Good question. Besides the fact that I think this is all super cool and I'm glad I was paying close attention in college when they explained it, I wanted to let you into my universe.

As many of you may know from your sessions with me, I may take about 200 shots during our time together, but you only get to see about 30 of them. No, I don't actually overlay the optical collimator (that snail-looking doohickey shown above) onto all my shots. But this is the math behind why I like one shot over another. And you'll get to see the one I like most.

Here's an example:

These 2 shots are virtually identical. Baby and blanket are posed just the same. Same lens. Same light. But the framing of my image is different. I will not include both of these on a client's contact sheet. The Golden Mean has already dictated which one is better.

Which one would you have picked?

It's the one on the left. See how baby's eye and the seam of the hat align with the primary line of division? And baby's hand is right along the secondary line? As well, the curve of the blanket and baby's arm follow the curve of the spiral.

So we went with it!

What all this spells is greater visual harmony. We all have the ability to recognize it inside of us. It's how we can look at a photo of something absolutely random (like paperclips or  pinecones) and say, "I don't know why I like it, but I like it."

Here are a few more examples.

And I love this last one!