Where The Round Things Are (and how to photograph them)
Fun With Cameras XXXII
This year’s first four Fun With Cameras posts work through four simple prompts. I already shared how I hunted for pictures that are all about quality of light and that are all about the location, the place, and how it feels during one specific hour of the day.
Today’s prompt differs from those two similar tasks: anything goes as long as it’s round.
That may sound like a very easy assignment.
But it’s a treacherous easiness. The more I searched for the round elements of the world, the harder it felt to find pictures. The more I let go, the easier it became to discover images of the round.
Below, I share some results and thoughts from the same four photowalks I used for the first two posts.
The Obvious From Afar and Close-Up
Finding pictures that fit the round prompt was the hardest task for those four walks.
I started with the obvious choices. But I quickly felt the pain of capturing these images.
Too obvious. Too easy. Too boring.
It hurt.
The gas tower stared me in the face with its towering roundness. I couldn’t miss it, couldn’t not photograph it.
But I also didn’t want to be satisfied with such an easy target. Where’s the challenge in that?
I sidelined that prompt and used the other three to get the photographic juices flowing. That helped silence the panicked voice in my head that felt overwhelmed.
I like the second image, even though I was thinking more about the prompt for next week’s post.
I wanted to make some progress with this prompt before ending the first walk, though. So, I returned to stuff that begged me to pay attention. From the gas tower in the distance, I moved to the details of two footbridges. Not that I am too thrilled about those, but in black-and-white, they still suffice to demonstrate how tricky a prompt so simple can be.
The Less Obvious Emerges
Photography makes the most sense to me if it’s instinctual.
Let go. Stop trying. Let your intuition guide you, and less obvious roundness emerges. It’s everywhere.
That might sound nebulous at first.
But there isn’t a one-liner advice that can be shared, resulting in good photography (whatever good is supposed to be).
It’s hard work to make photography click with your brain. At least it’s for me. It’s a process that will never be complete. Photography — just as everything else in life — is a never-ending learning process.
The more you read, the more you look at photography — good and bad, yours and others — and the more you practice, the easier it gets to react instinctively and use all you’ve learned in a way that is unique to you.
So, the further I progressed with my four days of photography, the more I got comfortable again with not trying to force it.
Take the first picture above: I was simply playing with the pre-sunrise scene around me. I wasn’t trying. And I only realized the round qualities during editing.
The remaining pictures are again more obvious. But without making the obvious, you’ll have a harder time discovering the less obvious.
I picked the obvious for the final two frames. But I played with an ultra-wide-angle lens to create a bit more life.
The Round Is In The Details
Shortly before reaching the wooded area on that rainy third morning, the light on the shiny chimney stopped me.
Similarly, nature’s influence on the signs was something I wanted to capture. I’m not sure about both pictures.
But maybe I needed to make those pictures to open my mind to see beyond.
For the final two, I used the close focusing ability of my 35mm lens to emphasize the raindrops, a detail I had almost overlooked. I wish I had a combination of the two examples: the foreground fence of the first and the brighter backdrop for the drops of the second.
But those pictures opened my eyes to what round can be. I like them for just that, even if they aren’t much photographically. They are pictures I’m glad I made because of the benefit they’ll have for the future.
Never Shy Away From Experiments
Despite offering roundness, the final walk had more potential for other prompts.
I still enjoy the first frame for its simplicity and partial roundness.
The stack of pipes and the silo, I couldn’t pass. But those are again pictures that maybe just needed to be made to open my imagination, not only for today and those four walks but for the future and my photography in general.
The final picture was an experiment. Experiments are the best way to improve.
I liked the light in that situation enough to not mind the subject matter (a trailer). It’s an awful picture that needed cropping, rotation, and a bit of dodging and burning. But it’s one of those pictures that keep my mind busy with reflections on light, composition, and roundness. It’s a picture that stimulates learning. That makes it good enough to show and write about.
I hope you enjoyed today’s Fun With Cameras. I return with the fourth prompt next Saturday. In between, I have new reading recommendations and updates from my A Journalist’s Diary.
