DESERT DREAMS

Forgotten things that seem like long ago dreams.  Because of the dryness of this desert these cast aside automobiles, mobile homes and even jet fighters seem to be preserved –slowly becoming one with the landscape.  These seemingly haunted items have been left to bleach in the desert sun.   Some may look at this as junk – but I rather look at it as headstones to a past or footprints of history and well worth documenting in photographs. 

Faces of Exit 270 Part 10

Street photography I have always felt is about the people that occupy the environment around you.  It is these faces that make up the place I call Exit 270.   So, welcome to a new year of Exit 270.

THE CIRCLE

The circle pattern seems to be one of the compositional visual elements least used.  This is probably because the viewer’s interest is quickly disengaged from the subject unless the circle is broken somehow to stop the eye from losing interest.  In creating my circular images, I’ve decided to break the circular composition within my images or place objects within the circle to solve this compositional problem.  As always, simplicity is the key to an effective means of presenting your subject.  Anything with a circle as the main point of interest is always a challenge.

All of the items from my kitchen shot in one day using window light.

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.