Ok look, after all this time you should probably know that I’m not great when it comes to titles. But for some reason this week’s shot made me think of this song, and the title just kind of followed naturally. Maybe it’s because the only way to get a picture like this one is to wake up early, or maybe because it’s just a really good song that tends to get stuck in my mind every now and then. Either way, well, let’s get to the photo already :)
A few weeks ago I talked about how one of the most important things you can do to get better photos is to just have your camera with you, and this is yet another example of the truth of that simple little maxim. There was nothing remarkable about this scene at all–just a small outdoor space in the native plant corridor going east/west across the Oklahoma State University campus–and I nearly walked past it altogether without giving it a second thought. But then I realized there might be a photo opportunity and, since I had my Nikon D750 and 105mm macro lens in hand, I might as well take a minute and see if there would be a photo opportunity in this otherwise mundane scene.
Rather than keep the sun at my back, I turned around and faced almost directly into it as it was peeking over the horizon. The effect was kind of cool, though I don’t think that somewhat pedestrian adjective quite describes what I’m thinking. It’s been a busy day. The dry…um…plant thing (I’m no botanist, that’s for sure) was lit up like yellow lights on a skinny Christmas tree, which was about what I expected. What took me by surprise was how the entire rest of the frame shimmered and glowed, with bits of light dancing all around, nearly setting the scene ablaze. I also liked how much the rich red bricks of the building in the background contrasted with the bright yellows, the entire composition ending up with a surreal almost otherworldly quality to it.
I didn’t really know what to do for exposure settings so I just kind of took a guess and shot at f/8, 1/180 second, ISO 720. (Yay Auto-ISO!) A bit of AI Denoise in Lightroom cleaned things up dramatically, and after a few other minor tweaks to a couple of sliders I got the image you see here. It was a fun and incredibly rewarding reminder of how sometimes you can get really good photos in the most unexpected places. Just make sure you have your camera with you :)
Leave a Reply