Achromatic Ratticus

Achromatic rat! Many people refer to this as black and white, or grayscale, which is correct but we will refer to Jared's picture as achromatic because it has no distinctive hues. 

Anticipated Movement & Contour

Tis the season! In this particularly festive picture the viewer can see the movement. Even though this is an image that is not actually moving, you can see from the rat's (Demetri's) position that he was in the middle of climbing down and running away with a small pumpkin! Before I grabbed it from him of course. Demetri's body actually has a nice curved line from his tail to his nose and his little feet are sprawled out to support him in motion. The contour of his body really stands out among the black background.

Accent & Implied Line

This picture is just so odd and cute, it had  to be used for something. So this is a perfect example of an accent!  It's hard to focus solely on one thing because the rat is draped over the dinosaurs head and the dinosaur is so large and bright. But the rat is so bright because she's hairless that you focus on her as well.  In this photo the rat is the accent because she is the secondary focal point with less emphasis than the dinosaur. The direction that the rat's head is pointed it creates a strong diagonal and an implied line down to the bottom right.

Worm's Eye View & Balance

Worm's eye view! Now to get a worm's eye view of a rat you have to be pretty low to the ground to begin with, but this wasn't too hard. Giving Jared a 'yogi' was the best way to get him to sit still so that I could get on the ground and take this shot. It's still stretching it a little bit because it's not too dramatic of a view. Although, because he is sitting in a "rounded" position and is smack in the center of the image, this comes across as a symmetrical piece. The background is dark and the foreground is simple enough and white that the plump rat in the middle makes it a very balanced piece.

Complementary Contrast, Contrast, Contrast!

The two sisters themselves, Belle and Luna are contrasting each other to begin with, I really wanted to push it forward with one of our favorite stuffed animals and my Interface Design binder! Belle is a gray, dumbo female rat, and Luna is a hairless, female rat. Luna's light skin color is almost in complete contrast to Belle's dark smooth fur, as is the Cheshire cat's pink color to the lime green binder I use. 

The way these two little girl rats look, expresses each of their personalities too. Belle is docile and loving, but Luna (short for Lunatic) is constantly running and moving! It's only fitting that they look the opposite as well.

Holy Repeated Figure, Ratman

This is an image out of a book called "RATS! The good, the bad and the ugly" it's a illustrative history of them.  I love this picture and I have it as my background on my computer currently! This is repeated figure, or repetition because of, obviously, the many rat bodies cuddled together and moving. 

Overlapping & Pattern

The overlapping comforter creates the illusion of depth because it is partially covering the rat Anastasia.  Even though the pattern is completely inverted when it is folded over it still continues in the same anticipated pattern.  The viewer knows that there is more to it because the rat is tucked up the blanket, but it's hard to tell because the pattern is the same throughout.

Intensity or Saturation

So many colorful objects for a white rat! This was hard to take through the bars of the cage because if I make any move to open the cage she shoots up and onto my shoulder so fast there isn't enough time to shoot the cute poses I catch her in.  Her head poking out from underneath the bed is so crisp and white, that when I took the pictures all the objects around her looked very intense! This image is heavily saturated and warm from the bright yellow bottom of the cage to the bright blue of her food dish. It's a shame that you can't see her bright red eyes as well!

Focal Point by Framing & Curvillinear

    This is one of my favorite pictures of my first rat, Demetri. He was such a loving, sweetheart that this photo really captures how he was as a rat. His fur is so light it doesn't seem as coarse as a typical male rat's fur, and the bedding he's bunched up around him to sleep in frames what you can see of his head and back. The roughness of the bedding softens Demetri's appearance and therefore makes him and more specifically his face the focal point of the image.
Demetri's body creates a very strong curve from his nose to hit little butt, which emphasizes the feeling of "flow" in this image. 

Amplified Perspective

This is not a hard picture to achieve, with the curiosity that rats have, if you get anywhere near them with a foreign object they just have to stick their noses in it! This amplified perspective really gives a great advantage to get right in on them and see a lot of great details while taking a dynamic picture, not to mention their adorable faces!