I notice I've been using the word "rhythm" a lot lately in a variety of on-line and off-line discussions about photographic composition, and when I noticed that, I recalled and dug up this image from a morning hike into the Eastern Sierra's incredible Little Lakes Valley in late 2013. Here, as I look back to the east, the sunrise is just about to catch up with me, creating a wonderful line of silhouetted conifers, that remind more than anything of a seismograph trace.
Our mind's visual processing is very good at picking up textures, patterns, rhythms, and often effective photography uses this fact to hold a viewer's attention, whether or not there's a dominant focal point in a photograph. I often wonder if this relates to the frequency with which we see photographers (such as Ansel Adams and Charlie Cramer) who are (or were) accomplished pianists or other musicians. Are the links between musical rhythm and visual rhythm so deep? I wonder.