DOWNTOWN

“Downtown –things will be great when you’re downtown” –as the Petula Clark song goes, and that is what I occasionally do.  I grab a camera and head downtown to walk and photograph the urban landscape.  I am drawn to the light as it outlines the various shapes while it hides others behind the dark shadows.  I think the key to shooting any downtown is to pick an area and become familiar with what stands out in that area – it could be the buildings or the people that reside within the area you have chosen to study.  However, in my case it is the mood or feeling that I want to create about these couple of city blocks–from the arrow lines in a parking lot to a mannequin in a window or a building peeking behind the shadows of another building.  My exposures are trying to capture the light and let the shadows go dark as a means of creating a hard look at my interpretation of this downtown.

Arizona Paint

I very rarely use a tripod because for many of the images I compose, the freedom of movement is important to me.  However, the one place I did bring along a tripod was Antelope Canyon, which is approximately 360 miles due north of exit 270.  This is a place where the light streams down from above the narrow irregular cuts in the canyon walls lighting some interesting colors combined with dark shadows.  Here is a place where long exposures and a wide-angle lens are the norm.  While I probably should have used HDR in making the exposures -I hoped that Photoshop would later help in opening up the deeper shadow areas.  I like to think of these images as “Arizona Paint” - because the canyon does feel like someone used a large bristol paintbrush with lots of colored paint.

Black and White Extreme

The photographer is an artist whose paintbrush is the light on his canvas, a light sensitive material that captures the images he or she sees and feels.  Photography is the documentation of our visual senses.   It is about light, shape and time defining what our senses feel and see at a given moment.  When I am out on one of my photo walks I am particularly attracted to the starkness between light and shadow under the harsh light of the mid-day sun.  It is under this light that I find shapes well defined and the shadows they form receding into darkness.  I prefer to present these shapes in black and white rather than in color, which would intrude on the simplicity of this visual experience.  It is the world of stark light and darkness –that I call The Black and White Extreme.

Faces of Exit 270 Part 9

I enjoy capturing the faces of the people I might find on one of my photo walks.  The trick is to be patient, observe, isolate your subject -a head will turn just right or a person will move into the desired position and you have your shot.  Of course, a lot is luck –being in the right place at the right time and being observant of what is happening around you even when your main subject may not be the people.  You need to move and frame the shot quickly, because there is no retake in this type of photography.  It helps of course to have set your camera for the f-stop and speed that will enable you to do all of this in advance.  And that is what this blog is about – it is the places, faces and objects around Exit 270 with a little deviation into the study of light and shapes.

Postcards From Tucson