71517c

This hopefully satisfactory one was achieved after several trial shots.  With the clustering of the sampans in a disorderly way, the photographer had to think hard and walk the scene for a desirable composition.  In fact, the distractions were the myriad of fishing boats in various sizes and shapes around the bay.  Leaving out those unrelated subjects without reducing the points of interest, which the trial shot at left failed, is a bit of a challenge.  Another chanllenge was the reflective surface of the water body which could upstage the the main subject.

Here the most captivating element, or the main subject, in the photographer's eye is the connected curves of the boats' edges.  First, to do away with the reflection, the shot was taken from a lower angle on the shore.  A lower angle also allowed more sampans to be included.

Then, the lens was zoomed to cut out the desired scene.  But a space was left in the foreground to give the queue a softer ending with the mirrored image of the nearest sampan.  That space also serves another aesthetic purpose: lau ba, or emptying. 

Lau ba is an aesthetic instrument in Chinese painting.  A painting with emptied space smoothens the flow of the picture as a whole and gives viewers a breathing room to think.  So, in the first shot, the space is also meant to heighten the sense of the water flowing around the sampans which hopefully echoes the flowing lines of their curved edges.  The flow of the picture overall hinges on the water and the main subject, the curves.