Exercise - Positioning the horizon.

This exercise looks at the effect of deciding where to position the horizon. The student is instructed to take a sequence of shots with the horizon at different points and make notes on what works, what doesn't and why.

Too much light reflected in the river. Too much foreground with little interest.

Similar to previous but starting to be detracted by the strip of  .bland sky.

  Better without the foreground but I really dislike the expanse of bland sky
 which takes half of the picture and seems like wasted space.

Same as previous comment but more dead uninteresting space.

Worse still. No interest anywhere. The bridge has lost context.

Personally I prefer the first image for the simple reason that the sky is bland and uninteresting and so detracts from the view where it is more obvious in the rest of the photos.. Also, because it is bright it reflects in the water making the images contain too many lighter parts that draw the eye.

Reflections on Exercise  - Positioning the Horizon.

This exercise illustrates why I am finding it difficult to take the type of photos that I like when the sky is grey and dull yet bright. A bit of interest in either the colour or the texture (ie the presence of clouds) would mean that my choice of 'favourite' shot would probably be different.
Once again this exercise was very useful in making me think about what I'm actually taking and the relationship of the subject with its surroundings. In this case the bridge should be the main subject but had the sky been more interesting then the bridge may have become part of the frame, rather than the main subject. Had I been taking a photo of the bridge because I found it interesting rather than for the exercise I would have crossed the river and tried to get it from an angle that excluded the distracting house through the right arch.
From this exercise I've also learned that positioning the horizon is important to consider at the composition stage and is also dependent on other factors such as weather and light. It is also important to determine exactly what the shot is about and whether the sky or the foreground (or neither) will most enhance the subject.