Field notes · Look · Try · Compare
Varying pace in a photo story
Try different arrangements of the middle photographs and discover where your attention pauses.
The middle of a photographic story gives your attention a route between its beginning and ending. A change of scale, a recurring detail, or a view with several things to explore can make that route feel different. Try arranging the same pictures in another order and notice where you linger.
Return to a subject at another scale.

Mermaid Sylveon, SunsetDragon Design · Yenra Photography archive · Credit: Made and Designed by SunsetDragon

Mermaid Sylveon, SunsetDragon Design · Yenra Photography archive · Credit: Made and Designed by SunsetDragon
The angled wider portrait brings pink fabric, blue reflective details, stone, and foliage together. There are several shapes to follow across the picture. The closer portrait returns to the face, hands, and decorated headpiece, with familiar colors filling a different arrangement.
Imagine placing the wider view before the close portrait, then reverse them. One order could introduce details you meet again; the other could let the surrounding scene unfold after a closer introduction. Notice what changes for you.
Give the setting a place in the sequence.

Patapsco Valley State Park, Orange Grove Pavilion · Yenra Photography archive

Magikarp, Pokemon · Yenra Photography archive
The pavilion photograph shifts attention to a roof, picnic tables, stone supports, and overhanging branches. The waterfall view includes an orange-clad figure lower in the frame and another figure at upper left, among rocks, trees, and water. Each offers a different set of relationships to explore.
A wider view need not be a pause, and a close view can hold your attention for a long time. Look at the particular photographs and the transition between them. Their position in a set may matter as much as how much detail each contains.
These photographs are ingredients for a possible editorial selection. Trying an order does not establish when the pictures were taken or the photographer's intended story. The complete gallery retains its original sequence.
Look back with curiosity.
- Where did you linger in each version?
- What changes between neighboring photographs?
- Which middle supports your chosen beginning and ending?
Continue with Choosing an opening photograph, Choosing a closing photograph, or Building a small photo story.
Browse all 270 photographs in Patapsco Cosplay Photoshoot 2019 → · Take the pace experiment with you →