Explorations in photography: Finding lines

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am taking Ricky Tims' online Photo Challenge class.  Work has been keeping me pretty busy, so I haven't managed to complete all of the weekly challenges.  Even so, I have been learning a lot about photography and composition.  One of the weekly challenges involved finding a line.  I wandered around my father's house one Sunday afternoon, taking photos that explored line.  (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.)

This is a close-up of an African mask (the twigs create the hair & beard on the face).  I liked this photo best -- the lines have a lot of wonderful movement.

This is a close-up of a spinning wheel made by paternal grandfather's grandfather (my great-great grandfather).  This is the photo I submitted for the challenge, as line is the dominant feature, though I'm not completely happy with it.  While the composition is simple and clean, I don't find it that interesting.  

This is a glass art vase.  Here I was exploring the idea of an edge as a line, though I think the colored shapes on the vase draw the eye more than the edge of the vase.  I love the beautiful color and sheen of the glass.

Again, I was looking at edges in terms of line, as well as the lines on the mask itself.  I like the composition and the way it frames the eyes and motifs on the mask.  Again, though, the composition seems less about line and more about shape, so it didn't seem to fit the challenge.  I think I could have gotten the focus a bit crisper, as well.  I have a lot to learn about working with my new camera.  My previous camera was a superzoom, but this class required a DSLR camera; I'm still figuring out how it works.  

This approach to photography is quite different from what I have done before.  Typically I take photos of things that interest me (such as vacation shots) -- I try to do a good job with composition and quality of the photo, but my motivation is to capture an experience or record something for future memory.  The photo challenges require that I go out to look for images to shoot that fit the challenge theme.  I'm finding that somewhat difficult -- it's hard to find inspiration at times.  I'm hoping that I'll get more ideas for photos as I go along.  I think the class will help me train my eye to look for interesting compositions.  

I'm linking this post up to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.