Belts

Out of the many photo entries of jeans with leather belts, I particularly liked this sharply focused still life. The faded Levi jeans act in direct contrast to the dark colours of the leather belt and buckle. Being loosely attached to the jeans allowed you to move the belt further down the denim for a more balanced composition. By painting the top third black you’ve expertly led the viewer’s attention towards the subject of your photo and away from any distraction in the background.

Wabi-sabi is the Japanese term for the aesthetic beauty of something that is perfectly imperfect. Coming across an old rusty buckle, attached to a decaying horse bridle amongst the dust and detritus of an abandoned building was very fortunate find this challenge. Your macro photo of the mildew covered belt is a perfect example of the understated beauty of wabi-sabi.

Metamorphosing your belt into a snake is a neat conjuring trick. You’d noticed the similarity between the leather-plaited belt and the markings on a snake’s body and took artistic advantage of the comparison. Coercing your coiled belt to perform like a hypnotised cobra is a very charming feat. It made your belt stand head and shoulders above all the others.

This intriguing belt, buckle and barbed wire photo poses many questions. Is it somebody’s lost item placed high up for them to find when they return looking for it? Was it somehow accidentally snagged on the barbed wire? Or is it meant to illustrate a serpent slithering skilfully, inch-by-inch, across the spiked fencing? The clever addition of the unusual prop has changed the complexity of your minimalist photo from a simple still life to a fantasy narrative.

By the look of the wear on the belt buckle and the scuffed denim jeans this is a much loved combo. Your delicate, feminine looking belt with its pretty lavender eyelets makes a pleasant change from the macho belts entered into this challenge. The hint of the Gucci label suggests someone with a fashionable taste for wearing expensive apparel. Your diagonally-positioned belt across the whole frame, makes a great, full on, macro composition, all the more remarkable by being so sharply shot on a smart phone.

When I first saw this photo I thought, “Why use a base made up of shredded paper?” Then reasoned, “Why not?” This composition slowly grew on me until finally I had to place it in my top ten. You had another variation of this image but I think this colour version works better. I’m from the school of thinking that there doesn’t have to be a reason to include what we want to include to get our photos noticed. Your juxtaposed, still life composition, certainly got your photo noticed by me.

Most photographers would have been perfectly happy to take this macro shot with a bit of depth-of-field blurring. Not you. You went to the extreme lengths of taking almost one hundred individual shots to focus stack them in order to achieve maximum front-to-back sharpness. Personally, I would have blackened out the belt’s edge along the top of the frame. That aside, your time, effort and dogged-determination to get a pin sharp photo has deservedly paid off.

I love the creative thinking behind this very good photograph. Belts are most commonly worn around people’s waists but you’ve intentionally gone out to find an alternative waist to attach your belt to. Your creative solution was to fasten it around the body of an acoustic guitar. The instrument’s shape is tailor-made for your display purpose. It looks like it’s squeezing the guitars waistline into a yet more pronounced figure. The only problem is - it stops you belting out a tune on the guitar.

This is a superb piece of social commentary making a powerful visual statement against an agonising modern day issue. Minimising the look of a person’s weight by tightening belts around the torso, graphically illustrates the lengths people will go to alter their shape and size. Your photo brings attention to the abhorrent practise of body shaming and the pressure it puts on an individual to strive for a perfect figure - whatever that may be. Pity your excellent photo lessened its full visual impact by the inclusion of distracting white text.