I almost never post shots like this, which is probably what makes this one so much fun :) I remember years ago I took a picture of some tree bark and used it as one of my Weekly Fifty photos, but for the most part the images you see here, which are, by extension, the images I like to shoot, are much more simple and straightforward: subject, background, and maybe one or two other elements for added context. When I came upon this scene one very chilly morning, I initially dismissed it entirely because it just didn’t seem all that interesting. I mean, it’s just some ice on the street with a bit of water flowing beneath. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
But wait. Maybe there was something more. Something I could uncover with a macro lens.
When I looked a bit closer I realized that, despite the rather dull colors, this could still be an interesting composition simply by getting the subject (i.e. all the ice) in focus and the background (i.e. the pavement about one inch beneath the ice) out of focus. I didn’t have time to get a tripod and really compose the perfect shot, and I also didn’t want to spend too long on this instead of playing with my kids, so I just kind of squatted down on the street, aimed my camera straight down, and took a bunch of photos to see what would happen.
This, then, is the result and while I’m not particularly fond of it I do think it helped me learn a few things. For one, it’s just not that colorful and, all things considered, I generally like shots with more visual appeal or at least more than just white and brown. It’s also not as tack-sharp as I would like, which is one of the byproducts of ice at close-up ranges using autofocus. The camera simply doesn’t know what it’s looking at or what to focus on, and when you combine that with all the micro-movements of shooting handheld, well, you get what we have here. It’s fine if you see this on a phone but if you’re on a laptop or desktop and click through to the original on Flickr you’ll probably notice that the edges just aren’t as well-defined as I would prefer. But I do like the general idea here, with essentially two planes and nothing else, and the hole just to the right of center to let you see through to the pavement. It was a fun photo to take and was a great opportunity to stretch my creative muscles just a bit, and maybe next time I’ll be able to build on this and get something even better :)
Leave a Reply