Today seems like an Itten’s Contrasts kind of day, with rainbows reflected in puddles as the sun dances in and out of Seattle downpour. I started an Itten’s Contrast/Michael Freeman series on the eve of 2010 — finishing just eight of my twelve promised posts. I’m tallying up the final four today, two years later, with a link back to the two posts that inspired the original project: It’s Not Imbalanced — It’s Itten and The 12 Days of Itten’s Contrasts.

The gist of the exercise is to pair two photographs, each containing an element that contrasts with the other. In the third photograph, you include both contrasting elements in one photograph. The key is to expand beyond the literal and into the metaphorical, imaginative and sensory aspects of the characteristic in question.

Liquid / Solid

Liquid:

Ocean Waves

Solid:

Ship Door

Liquid & Solid:

Soup and Toast

Hard / Soft

Hard:

Frozen lion fountain

Frozen lion fountain

Soft:

Go Forth and Prosper - Dandelion in Black and White

Hard + Soft:

Velella velella in water blur

Velella velella in water blur

Loud / Soft

Loud:

Fireworks Over San Francisco

Soft:

Moss on Trees

Loud & Soft:

Feral peacock in Palos Verdes, California

Feral peacock in Palos Verdes, California

Continuous / Intermittent

Continuous:

Intermittent:

Coiled Boom in Elliott Bay

Continuous + Intermittent:

Brown Pelicans Flying Over Camera Obscura SF

Brown Pelicans Flying Over Camera Obscura SF