March of the Pyramids
Today was “Fun with Shapes,” and I feel like it really helped me get back into the swing of things after a couple boilerplate, not-so-great assignments. I had about an hour to kill on the Upper West Side due to work anyway, so it got me walking out and about looking for a subject to shoot.
The above image is the first one I shot. I have to admit I felt a pang of awkwardness, wondering what people would think when they saw some idiot taking photos of what we all walk by, every day, and if we think of it at all, we think of it as an annoyance. I thought, “What do I have to gain by not taking the shot?” So I did, and I was really happy with how it turned out. So happy that I thought I’d continue and see what else I could find — and that’s why there are several images here.
Once or twice, someone did make a snide comment, like, “Cool photo, man.” (In good faith, it may in fact not have been snide at all, but merely a projection of those awkward feelings. Whatever it was, I resolutely convinced myself that I wouldn’t let it bother me.)
It was some pretty prime conditions for shooting. Just after 5:00pm, on a pleasantly warm and overcast-yet-bright October day. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t find enough to interest me, but I was happy to have found a glut of interesting things to shoot in a very small radius (about one block by four blocks). I could have easily killed another hour, if not more, on this same assignment.
In playing with shapes, I found myself not merely looking for familiar or foreign geometries, but those same shapes repeating themselves. Patterns are a very effective tool of composition to begin with, but particularly in this case, when I had to be very deliberate as to what I was showing off, they were nearly the only compositional tool I had.
For these reasons, I had to have a very keen eye for detail. The above image, in my mind, is kind of a failure in that regard. I had something very specific in mind when I made this image, but the line to walk for it is so thin, and I didn’t cut it. The light behind the black railing is too distracting, and I should have been the smallest smidgen of a millimeter to the right, so that that last black arc didn’t slam crashing into the archway.
Conversely, I was pretty happy with how this one turned out. It took me a bit of fidgeting and playing with focal length to achieve the effect that I wanted, but this was it. Click the photo for bigger version.
(More photos below)
Other photos, such as this one above, are pretty obvious, but I hope not trite. I ended up liking this photo more than I felt like I should allow myself, along with the next two.
I did feel like a complete idiot shooting this one. But hey, fits the assignment, yeah? And part of what was so enjoyable about today’s was looking at the same stuff I look at every day in a new way.
The image on the left was one that I wasn’t completely satisfied with, and probably wouldn’t even have posted it, except that after I had taken it, a man said to me, “You should take a photo of what it looks like with all this open air.” Apparently, that tree had only very recently fallen down (perhaps during Hurricane Irene?) and all that sky in the photo on the right used to be filled with leaves.
Not much to say about all these, except that I quite liked them. Especially with the previous three and the next two, I feel like I got just what I was aiming for. The final shot happens to be my favorite.
I really like the first photograph. The way they are distinct in that middle range , blurred up close, and so very very indistinct further away. Plus the blurry blue bars in the background and blurry red rusted bars make for a pretty interestingly geometric shot…but very asymetric at the same time. I also like the detail on the little black pyramids in the mid range. Plus they kinda remind me of mountains for some reason.
I liked the rest too, but I tend to dislike brushed metal/metal in general when its the spotlight and is too…metallic.
I thought your first photo had a lot of different contrasts. It had a organic feel with the bumpy black pyramid in the in focus range, yet they were obviously very geometric…The bars were in a pattern, yet the blue kinda gave a bit of a feel of the sky, with the red offering some more contrast. and the x pattern yet again offering some geometry, yet its all going from bottom right to upper left, giving some asymetry and breaking it up. The black in the foreground, white in the background. It also kinda gave me a sense of motion. my eye was definitely directed to those in focus pyramids..I don’t know dude, i just really liked it
I think the neatest part of this set is that it makes you take a step back and reevaluate all these different things that we encounter every day, and never deign to notice, or promptly disregard. If the comment was snide, it was probably because they were uncomfortable that you could see something photo-worthy that they were blind to. I imagine shooting this assignment might have been a little like showing people from out-of-town around somewhere you’ve lived for a long time. Through their eyes, you end up seeing so many things you yourself missed.