Here you are looking at a cliff face. There is a fault which cuts diagonally from the bottom right to the upper left. The fault is highlighted in white on the inset photograph. You can recognize the sense of motion by looking for the two thin dark layers which are offset along the fault line.

Here you can tell the relative motion by looking at how the river is offset across the fault plane. The fault is highlighted in white on the inset photograph.  Notice how the river takes a dramatic right turn, follows the fault for some distance, then takes a dramatic left turn.

Keep in mind that we are interested in the geologic structure and not with the topography or the lands surface.

For purpose of discussion, lets assume that north is straight up in this photograph. If you study this photo carefully, you will see that the beds in the north are dipping towards the north and the beds in the south are dipping towards the south.

While you have no way of determining this from the photograph, the beds in the center are older and become progressively younger as you move outward.