Patterns bring harmony and rhythm to the pictures like the harmony of the repeating notes in a song. Patterns appear where graphic elements like lines, colors, shapes or forms repeat themselves. You can see patterns everywhere, in the crop fields, roads, public places even simple objects that you use everyday. Buttons of a keyboard, tiles of chess board, sunflowers in a field, poles of a fence and too many other things create beautiful patterns to capture.

To find patterns, sometimes you need the chance your position, angle or wait for light to change it’s angle. as an example; dunes in a dessert or a beach that shaped by the wind cannot create a pattern in noon, but in the afternoon when the rays of sun hits them with a low angle, play of highlight and shadow create patterns for photographers to create great pictures by using them. Also in a rainy day you maybe you won’t notice the pattern that created by the umbrellas of people walking in the street while you are walking with them. But if you go up to 2nd or 3rd floor of a building you can see the pattern. Close-ups are also good for finding the patterns, especially natural ones, such as the curls and twists of a flower’s leafs, seeds etc.

Try to isolate the pattern from all other surrounding elements to create a feeling that repetition is infinite and extending beyond the frame. Tele lenses are useful for isolating the design from the surroundings. They allow you to zoom in and exclude any unwanted elements even from a long distance.

But honestly only taking pictures of patterns is not that creative (imho). But using it in your pictures with another element of photography or with another composition technique can make you achieve great results in your pictures. If you are following my web site for a time, you probably know that i really like Gilad Benari’s pictures and understanding of photography. He is a photography master that uses patterns very wisely and aesthetically. Here there are some examples for using patterns in photography from Gilad Benari; (as i told i didn’t ask for permission to publish his photographs in my web site so i’m just giving the links to his deviantArt account.)

Corridor of Faith - Gilad Benari

(Sorry only one example for now, there’s a problem with my internet provider, I’ll add other examples as soon as possible)