In The Neighborhood

The other day I decided to take a walk through the neighborhood.  Like most developments, everything is planned out with winding streets and culdesacs, which photographically are not very visually appealing.

What my eye focused on was the curves of the streets and the shapes of the houses as they were bathed in side lighted sunlight.  I basically made the images black and white in order to accent the light and lines that met my eyes.  So this is my short photographic walk through my neighborhood and what I saw.

All images shot using a Sony A7II camera and a kit lens.  Images were converted to black and white in Photoshop.

 

Catching the Light

 

Long days where light and shadows kiss

And light stretches across the floor 

In a never ending line ending on a distant wall

Where a shadow seems to move in rhythm 

As one try’s to catch the light.

Light moves quickly and the shadows are sure to follow.  And, as it creeps through cracks in the blinds, a dance begins with its partner the darkness.   The light dances across the walls and floors in a never ending dance forming shadowy shapes.

Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer said, “Where there is light one can photograph.”  Yes that is true, but first you must see the light.  This blog is about observing the light and shadows it creates during one day I spent observing it within my space.  

All images were made using a Sony A7II camera using natural window light.

  

Shadowy Abstracts

Photography is an art form that allows you to express yourself through the images you create.  While we tend to focus on light and how we use it to create images, we forget that the light is really nothing without the shadows.  The shadows are what define our subject.

The other day while cleaning up in my kitchen I noticed the shadows cast by a wine glass on the counter.  The bright sunlight pouring through the kitchen window created a shadowy abstract shape.

I decided to experiment with this observation by using different types of glasses and a white sheet of paper.  I found that by allowing the paper to curl upward toward the back, the shadows cast by the sunlight through the glasses created a series of distorted shadowy images, that seem to twist and turn depending on their placement.  The images presented here are examples of how light and shadows interact with each other within an image. 

All images shot using a Sony A7II camera using natural window light.                                       

 

Photographic Still Life Simplicity

 Still life photography is a genre that allows you to create and compose objects within a pleasing presentation.  The layout of the objects should be arranged in a simple composition that allows a viewers eye to focus on the main object in the arrangement.  The space required for this genre can be as simple as your kitchen table.  The lighting can be any combination of window light and a portable LED light.  The background used can be two pieces of black poster board on a tabletop setting.

The use of flowers can make for a colorful still life.  In this post I use a series of different flowers separately composed into simple arrangements using singular props to accent the arrangements.  I have kept the layout simple in order to have the color and shapes of the flowers be the main focus of the viewer’s eyes.  However, the composition can be as creative as your imagination.  

All images were photographed using a Sony A7II camera.  I can be contacted for comments or questions at nymacc@gmail.com

Standing Still

Standing in my backyard, I practiced just being still for a brief period observing my surroundings.  I was in my still point standing in one spot and meditating visually.  Although I had taken a camera out with me, it remained silent as I visually dissected the scene before me.

I was slowly allowing my eyes to travel across a series of tile roofs of neighboring houses.   While each of us might view this scene differently and photograph it as whole images of houses, I found myself breaking it up into a series of sections.  What I saw was lines dissecting lines, shapes and light dissolving into shadows.  What I was looking at was a series of abstractions each forming an individual image.  It was at this point that I picked up the camera and began recording these fragments of images.

Standing in my backyard, I practiced just being still for a brief period observing my surroundings.  I was in my still point standing in one spot and meditating visually.  Although I had taken a camera out with me, it remained silent as I visually dissected the scene before me.

You might think of this as a process of discovery that becomes an endless source of creativity.  I like to think of it as the art of being still...a sort of still point where your eyes begin to build a series of photographs on the canvas in your mind.

 

All images shot using a Sony A7II camera.  I can be contacted at nymacc@gmail.com