The Tree

If anything good is to come out of this period of self imposed isolation it is a heightened awareness of things around you.  Here I sit alone listening to every small sound and watching every movement of light coming through the windows within whatever room I happen to be occupying.  You are in some sense building a visual library of what is around you.

With all of the above in mind, I have been looking at a tree that resides in a yard about two houses from me.  I have become acutely aware that it’s appearance changes with changes in light.  It is simply an attempt to communicate how I see this tree over a short time period.  This period of sheltering in place has made me cancel out all those normal daily distractions and concentrate seeing one particular thing that I may have not really noticed before.   And, this is what a photographer tries to achieve…the isolation of an idea or simply put, the creative process.  This is something we all can do to develop our visual senses while in limited spaces. The images are meant to be a visual appreciation of a simple natural object, a tree.

All images shot using Sony A7II camera at 6:30pm.  I can be contacted at nymacc@gmail.com  for questions or comments.  All comments pro or con appreciated.

Taking The Camera For A Walk

Take your camera for a walk.  While it is a challenge to be creative indoors during this Covid-19 virus isolation, there is a point where you want to get out for a walk in the sunshine.

Some of these walks with the camera have been around the local neighborhood and in other walks I have driven to what I thought would be an interesting neighborhood to take my camera on a walk.   The challenge of course is what will I see?, and what will be my approach to the subjects presented.  I decided my approach would be to look for lines, shapes and light in my subjects since I would probably be seeing walkways and houses mostly. 

The question do I work in black and white or color?  I have always found that black and white was more dramatic when it comes to lines and shapes.  You have to train your eyes to see in black and white, which requires using the shadows in your subject to define the shape of your subject.  For the following group of images that I photographed, I was not interested in capturing dynamic range, but rather emphasizing the lines and the form of the architecture through darkening the shadows and increasing contrast.     

All of the images were shot in early morning with the sun low in the sky allowing for deep shadows.  The camera is a Sony A7II.  I can be contacted at nymacc@gmail.com for comment or questions.