For the next 52 weeks, I will be posting a new single image each Monday and Friday along with a short-long collection of my thoughts about it. The images may represent things that are special to me, random photographic captures, deliberately engineered shots, blah blah blah, I’m sure I’ll eventually post an image that doesn’t fall into any of those categories. I’m calling this series “104 Experiment” due to the fact that over the course of 52 weeks, two images per week will result in 104 total images.
Welcome to post number two.
WALK
The day UPS delivered the Canon 5D Mark II was a glorious day indeed. I had been waiting anxiously all morning, and finally I heard the truck. I remember tearing open the box and realizing “I bet the battery doesn’t come pre-charged”. 150 minutes later, Aneila(my wife) and I were off for the mandatory “new camera” walk.
As we got down near the train tracks on Bear Lithia Road outside of Elkton, Virginia, Aneila walked ahead as I experimented with the new full frame wideness that the T2i wasn’t able to achieve. After about thirty seconds of tinkering while pointing the camera towards the ground, I happened to glance up and immediately liked something about the lines and contrasts that created the scene.
Studying the image now, I see lots of converging lines going towards Aneila. I also see the evening color of the grass contrasting with the blue sky. The utility pole, tree, and Aneila form a triangle, which is the simplest, yet most robust of all the geometric shapes. One of my favorite aspects of this photograph is the focal length, when combined with the chosen aperture (mentioned below). 28mm at f/9.0 on a full frame sensor gives a very wide perspective with little pincushion distortion, and effective hyper focus (everything is in focus). Thus, the world surrounding what I consider the subject (the triangle), appears large. Accurately large. People, trees, and utility poles are nothing compared to the vastness of the universe. Those are the things that I notice about the image now.
Often times I just get this feeling about a scene that I can’t explain. “I want to photograph that. . .someday” is the most common response to stimuli. This time, the “I want to photograph that. . .someday” feeling arrived and without missing a beat, I raised the camera, framed the shot, and pressed the shutter. One shot. It’s not a contest winning shot, but I’m satisfied with this image because it represents the scene in a way that invokes the same feeling I got when I first glanced up. That is my ultimate goal as a photographer.
exposure time: 1/200
f-number: f/9.0
ISO speed: 320
focal-length: 28mm
equipment: Canon 5D and Canon 28mm f/2.8 USM
software: Adobe Lightroom
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Have a great weekend!
