114. Contrast - August 16-22, 2015
Deron-
A friend of mine plays in a 'wood bat league' and I asked him to save the broken bats from the toothpick factory. While I haven't done the art project I plan on doing, it worked out that I found a use for these snapped twigs in the meantime. Can anyone decipher those two autographs? I can't.
A friend of mine plays in a 'wood bat league' and I asked him to save the broken bats from the toothpick factory. While I haven't done the art project I plan on doing, it worked out that I found a use for these snapped twigs in the meantime. Can anyone decipher those two autographs? I can't.
Kevin-
Contrast was very difficult for me, mostly because I made it difficult for myself. I had gone for high “color” contrast during WPOTM week 9, the first time the theme was Contrast, and this time I wanted to do a “low" contrast image. I remembered some very low contrast images I had captured at the Maine Media Workshops back in 2007. In my opinion they were some wonderful photos. But what made them wonderful was heavy fog, that dramatically lowered the contrast and clarity of many scenes.
But for this theme? No problem I figured. A big storm system was rolling in, so I figured heavy rain would really lower the contrast of images. I carried my camera around in that heavy rain (fortunately my Nikon is built for sports shooters and news photographers who have to create images in all sorts of weather). When it was over I was absolutely soaked from head to toe, but the images weren’t nearly as low contrast as I had expected them to be.
So today I simply went for clouds. Interesting clouds are often high contrast, color contrast between the blue sky and white clouds. Clouds in overcast skies? Often not as interesting. Certainly not as interesting and memorable as the clouds and fog from those 2007 photos, but at least this photo qualifies as low contrast. So it's the image I am submitting.
Contrast was very difficult for me, mostly because I made it difficult for myself. I had gone for high “color” contrast during WPOTM week 9, the first time the theme was Contrast, and this time I wanted to do a “low" contrast image. I remembered some very low contrast images I had captured at the Maine Media Workshops back in 2007. In my opinion they were some wonderful photos. But what made them wonderful was heavy fog, that dramatically lowered the contrast and clarity of many scenes.
But for this theme? No problem I figured. A big storm system was rolling in, so I figured heavy rain would really lower the contrast of images. I carried my camera around in that heavy rain (fortunately my Nikon is built for sports shooters and news photographers who have to create images in all sorts of weather). When it was over I was absolutely soaked from head to toe, but the images weren’t nearly as low contrast as I had expected them to be.
So today I simply went for clouds. Interesting clouds are often high contrast, color contrast between the blue sky and white clouds. Clouds in overcast skies? Often not as interesting. Certainly not as interesting and memorable as the clouds and fog from those 2007 photos, but at least this photo qualifies as low contrast. So it's the image I am submitting.
Paul-
A reasonable explanation (thinly veiled as an excuse): The picture I was originally going to submit was—based on my work schedule, personal medical adventures, and the hours kept by the proprietor of an art studio—made it likely I wasn’t going to get my shots by late Saturday morning. On Wednesday of this week (while having near-orgiastic fun making cold calls to medical clinics), I saw something I liked better for the theme. To be on the safe side, I’m going to keep the aforementioned studio a secret on the off-chance another theme fits it little better than this one did.
So, here I go getting all philosophic and pedantic on you guys. (Legally required caveat: Stop here if you need to. There isn’t a lot of knee-slappers after this.)
When I saw this image—organic versus inorganic—I started extrapolating on the WPOTM theme. That is to say, “Contrast” has such a broad and personal interpretation. That makes it a good theme, I think, but also one that has a reasonable place in notions such as Irony, Visceral, Dichotomy, and Symbiosis. I’ll explain.
(See? I warned you.)
I’ve seen this disk plow for years. It seems to squat in permanent, if neglected, residency between a dreary (and slightly unsettling) medical building, and a bike trail I have ridden since I moved to Lincoln. As it happens, when this theme came up I was visiting the building (and it’s just as spooky on the inside) on business and saw the plow again. I went back late in the afternoon to take some photographs.
And here’s where we ramp things up a bit. Before and during the time I took the pictures I thought a lot about the concept of “Contrast” and what it means strained through different perspectives, use of language, and passage of time. For me, this photographed object embraced a lot of interpretations that may float a bit underneath the faster moving surface of the obvious. (You’ll be as good a judge of this as I am—unless my writing has obscured my point by now.) There’s Irony. Contrast this iron implement that once sketched furrows in the ground—easily moving aside any stubbornly remaining roots and weeds—with what is now an iron fossil overrun with the very vegetation it was part of a farmer’s toolset to remove. There’s Symbiosis. (Admittedly, not so much in the generally recognized and mutually organic sense.) The plow provides a platform for creepers, vines, branches and other greenery to latch on to as they grow up and out to sustain their needs. In contrast, this same plant growth hitching a ride on a rusted, broken-down hunk of metal suddenly lessens its appearance of disuse and makes it something almost beautiful to look at (depending on your artistic sensibilities, of course). And Dichotomy. While these two elements, static iron and growing plants, contrast each other and, under some conditions work at mutually exclusive cross-purposes, here they don’t. It’s an expanded truce, an extended cease fire, between that which violently pries open the earth and that which flourishes in a more undisturbed soil. Without this détente (and yes, that’s probably a literary stretch here) we have dichotomy which always involves contrast of some kind. Finally, the Visceral. The contrast along this line is obvious and tangible—even if only presented a photograph: The soft and yielding; the hard and unmovable. The wonderment in the tenacity of life; the poignant finality of the displaced, and unneeded. The exploding promise of green life; and slow death in oxidized metal. Emergence and entropy.
Again, this is a great theme. Because contrast (at least to me) signifies difference, conflict polarization…something obviously counter to something else. But it (ditto) also means an unexpected--and maybe even required--commonness of purpose between otherwise opposite ideas, perspectives, applications, emotions, and effects.
Our story so far: Shot at 1/800 sec.; f/8; aperture priority; ISO800; 21 focus point/patterned metering mode, - 1/3 EV; 18-55mm lens set at 18mm; white balanced for daylight; and hand-held. Image shot in color with all saturation levels dropped to zero in editing with the exception of green (boosted to 84%) to produce near B&W appearance of the disk plow and highlighted color in the plants.
A reasonable explanation (thinly veiled as an excuse): The picture I was originally going to submit was—based on my work schedule, personal medical adventures, and the hours kept by the proprietor of an art studio—made it likely I wasn’t going to get my shots by late Saturday morning. On Wednesday of this week (while having near-orgiastic fun making cold calls to medical clinics), I saw something I liked better for the theme. To be on the safe side, I’m going to keep the aforementioned studio a secret on the off-chance another theme fits it little better than this one did.
So, here I go getting all philosophic and pedantic on you guys. (Legally required caveat: Stop here if you need to. There isn’t a lot of knee-slappers after this.)
When I saw this image—organic versus inorganic—I started extrapolating on the WPOTM theme. That is to say, “Contrast” has such a broad and personal interpretation. That makes it a good theme, I think, but also one that has a reasonable place in notions such as Irony, Visceral, Dichotomy, and Symbiosis. I’ll explain.
(See? I warned you.)
I’ve seen this disk plow for years. It seems to squat in permanent, if neglected, residency between a dreary (and slightly unsettling) medical building, and a bike trail I have ridden since I moved to Lincoln. As it happens, when this theme came up I was visiting the building (and it’s just as spooky on the inside) on business and saw the plow again. I went back late in the afternoon to take some photographs.
And here’s where we ramp things up a bit. Before and during the time I took the pictures I thought a lot about the concept of “Contrast” and what it means strained through different perspectives, use of language, and passage of time. For me, this photographed object embraced a lot of interpretations that may float a bit underneath the faster moving surface of the obvious. (You’ll be as good a judge of this as I am—unless my writing has obscured my point by now.) There’s Irony. Contrast this iron implement that once sketched furrows in the ground—easily moving aside any stubbornly remaining roots and weeds—with what is now an iron fossil overrun with the very vegetation it was part of a farmer’s toolset to remove. There’s Symbiosis. (Admittedly, not so much in the generally recognized and mutually organic sense.) The plow provides a platform for creepers, vines, branches and other greenery to latch on to as they grow up and out to sustain their needs. In contrast, this same plant growth hitching a ride on a rusted, broken-down hunk of metal suddenly lessens its appearance of disuse and makes it something almost beautiful to look at (depending on your artistic sensibilities, of course). And Dichotomy. While these two elements, static iron and growing plants, contrast each other and, under some conditions work at mutually exclusive cross-purposes, here they don’t. It’s an expanded truce, an extended cease fire, between that which violently pries open the earth and that which flourishes in a more undisturbed soil. Without this détente (and yes, that’s probably a literary stretch here) we have dichotomy which always involves contrast of some kind. Finally, the Visceral. The contrast along this line is obvious and tangible—even if only presented a photograph: The soft and yielding; the hard and unmovable. The wonderment in the tenacity of life; the poignant finality of the displaced, and unneeded. The exploding promise of green life; and slow death in oxidized metal. Emergence and entropy.
Again, this is a great theme. Because contrast (at least to me) signifies difference, conflict polarization…something obviously counter to something else. But it (ditto) also means an unexpected--and maybe even required--commonness of purpose between otherwise opposite ideas, perspectives, applications, emotions, and effects.
Our story so far: Shot at 1/800 sec.; f/8; aperture priority; ISO800; 21 focus point/patterned metering mode, - 1/3 EV; 18-55mm lens set at 18mm; white balanced for daylight; and hand-held. Image shot in color with all saturation levels dropped to zero in editing with the exception of green (boosted to 84%) to produce near B&W appearance of the disk plow and highlighted color in the plants.
Jerry-
Contrast, I suppose it's everywhere. High, low, and a millions shades in between. So I went for a walk after over contemplating things, found a weird leaf and took it home. What to do? The big sliding patio doors face North so I have a defacto North light studio. Nice. And the leaf was green and the place mat was red. So Leaf_2553s is my CONTRAST photo. I tried a very high ISO (6,400) so that a tripod could be dispensed with and came up with this. D750 with 105mm Micro Nikkor, 1/100 @ f11, light from the North at about 5 pm.
Contrast, I suppose it's everywhere. High, low, and a millions shades in between. So I went for a walk after over contemplating things, found a weird leaf and took it home. What to do? The big sliding patio doors face North so I have a defacto North light studio. Nice. And the leaf was green and the place mat was red. So Leaf_2553s is my CONTRAST photo. I tried a very high ISO (6,400) so that a tripod could be dispensed with and came up with this. D750 with 105mm Micro Nikkor, 1/100 @ f11, light from the North at about 5 pm.
Don-
I ran this contrast assignment over and over in my mind. I decided on this, the contrast between the two dogs.
One is dark and the other is light. One is young and the other is old. One is skinny and the other is heavy. One
supports Hillary Clinton and the other is a Donald Trump supporter. I had the camera set on Auto ISO by accident so the camera selected and ISO of 5600. I have never shot anything at 5600. My photography Instructor would
be ashamed of me. The D810 was set on Aperture Priority and at Auto Focus. I had f/5.6 set the camera selected
1/80th second and as I stated the ISO was at 5600. Lens was at 70mm.
I ran this contrast assignment over and over in my mind. I decided on this, the contrast between the two dogs.
One is dark and the other is light. One is young and the other is old. One is skinny and the other is heavy. One
supports Hillary Clinton and the other is a Donald Trump supporter. I had the camera set on Auto ISO by accident so the camera selected and ISO of 5600. I have never shot anything at 5600. My photography Instructor would
be ashamed of me. The D810 was set on Aperture Priority and at Auto Focus. I had f/5.6 set the camera selected
1/80th second and as I stated the ISO was at 5600. Lens was at 70mm.
Byron-
I call my photo "Ice Cubes Roasting on an Open Fire". Go ahead and sing it if you want, Lord knows I did. I went the direction of temperature contrast. Instead of placing a block of ice on a fire I thought it would be better to make an ice cube that looked roughly like a marshmallow with a skewer embedded in it. I researched how to make clear ice. It's amazing how many opinions there are on how to do that. I started with distilled water so there has no sediment to show up in the cube. That helps but what makes the ice white is trapped air bubbles. I could have taken the step of boiling the water to release the excess air but I chose not to. My laziness led to a cube that is partially clear, mostly white. I was hoping this photo would look like I'm holding the cube over the fire. I was trying to figure out how to make a fire in my backyard when the idea struck me, use the gas fireplace in my basement. The issue there is the permanent glass between the fire and the room. so I shot at an angle to minimize reflection, used the trusty Byro-snoot to control the light pattern on the room side and use some forced perspective to make it seem like the cube was closer to the fire than it actually is.
ISO 200. 48mm, f6.3, 1/8 sec. The flash was set to -1.0.
I call my photo "Ice Cubes Roasting on an Open Fire". Go ahead and sing it if you want, Lord knows I did. I went the direction of temperature contrast. Instead of placing a block of ice on a fire I thought it would be better to make an ice cube that looked roughly like a marshmallow with a skewer embedded in it. I researched how to make clear ice. It's amazing how many opinions there are on how to do that. I started with distilled water so there has no sediment to show up in the cube. That helps but what makes the ice white is trapped air bubbles. I could have taken the step of boiling the water to release the excess air but I chose not to. My laziness led to a cube that is partially clear, mostly white. I was hoping this photo would look like I'm holding the cube over the fire. I was trying to figure out how to make a fire in my backyard when the idea struck me, use the gas fireplace in my basement. The issue there is the permanent glass between the fire and the room. so I shot at an angle to minimize reflection, used the trusty Byro-snoot to control the light pattern on the room side and use some forced perspective to make it seem like the cube was closer to the fire than it actually is.
ISO 200. 48mm, f6.3, 1/8 sec. The flash was set to -1.0.