One thing I have learned about photography is that there often is not any direct relationship between time and effort spent on capturing an image, and the quality of the end result. In other words, someone might take a great deal of time composing a shot, manipulating the light, carefully positioning the subject, dialing in precise exposure settings, and still end up with a dud. Conversely, it’s entirely possible and often likely that quick one-off mobile phone snapshots will produce incredible results suitable for printing, framing, and sharing. Of course the inverse is true as well, and more often than not one of the best pieces of advice I give to new photographers is to slow down, take your time, and really put some time and effort into learning how to use your camera and getting the photo you want.
You can probably see where this is going. At the risk of sounding overly philosophical, this image is kind of in the middle of both ends of the spectrum. It took about an hour to take this picture, and while I’m not entirely certain the end result reflects the amount of time spent, I do quite like it and I am proud of what I was able to create. My only regret is that I did not take a behind-the-scenes shot of the setup so you could see exactly what I was working with, but even so I think this photo works quite well on its own and, more importantly, I like what it represents–the context, if you will.
My wife’s father is really into LEGOs. Always has been. He has a pretty large collection of various LEGO sets, and it’s something he enjoys sharing with others too. Earlier this year he gave all of us (me, my wife, and our two kids) each a LEGO set that was tailored, so to speak, for our own personalities. He knows I enjoy photography, which made this the ideal LEGO set for me and one that I very much enjoyed assembling over the course of a few afternoons. I thought it would be fun to photograph the camera, in addition to displaying it on a shelf in our house, so while my wife was out with a friend and our kids were in bed I set out to do just that. Not just a snapshot, though: a considered, bespoke composition to display the camera in the best possible light.
Everything you see in this photograph was carefully selected and positioned by me: the pine board on which the camera is resting as well as the second pine board in the background. The angle of the camera and the location of the filmstrip. The position of my Nikon D750 camera and 105mm macro lens. The exposure (f/19, 0.7 seconds, ISO 100), and finally, the lights. All five of them to be exact. Nanlite Pavotubes set to 3500K and attached to tripods as well as resting on the wood and even one in my hand. (You can understand why I wish I had taken a behind-the-scenes shot…) The lighting is what led to the image taking so long to create: I wanted to capture the camera in a way that felt natural and realistic, not overly-stylized with multi-colored accents like I have done on other similar shots. It’s a bit ironic, then, that it took so much time and intention to get lighting that just seemed normal and natural. But the end result is worth it, in my opinion, because the toy camera and strip of film are shown exactly how I wanted–right down to the reflection of the lights on the lens and the shine on the edge of the right side of the camera.
It felt good to take this picture, like a return to the careful, considered photographs I have enjoyed taking from time to time over the years. I enjoyed it, and it made me think of other similar shots I might try taking in the coming months too. We’ll see…