Exercise: Positioning the horizon

I took a lot photographs for this exercise, finding the majority wholly unsatisfactory.  In the end I settled on this sequence which I shot in beautiful Marks Hall grounds.

I am showing only three here as these aptly illustrate the point required in this exercise.

Here I have a high horizon.  The high positioning of the horizon places considerably more importance on the foreground and here I attempted to provide this interest through the use of the walled bank on the right which also provides the lead in and depth through to the horizon.  In this case I also had interest in the reflection in the still water of the lake.  I like this placing of the horizon as it gives much more strength than where the horizon is placed in other positions.

With the horizon placed centrally (almost) more emphasis is placed here on the symmetry of the reflection of the sky in the water.  The walled bank on the right is still providing interest, however, overall I feel that there is less drama than when the horizon was high and it is much more static.

Here, with a low horizon there is much more need to find interest in the sky.  Fortunately the sky on this this day had some nice fine weather cumulous cloud formations which provided a degree of interest.  Interestingly there is seemingly less depth here than in the first, high horizon, picture.