Saturday, March 20, 2010

Thoughts on Process

I was reflecting on the sequence of events that eventually lead to the selection of yesterday's "daily practice" image. I've decided to put some thoughts down for future reference, and although these are intended for me, please read on if you wish.

I remember coming out of the building at the end of another long day of work researching and preparing a lecture for my class. I was immediately struck by the fresh, slight warm breeze hinting at the coming of spring here. My immediate thought regarding my daily practice was to go down to Cattle Point at the shore and take a typical tourist shot of the channel islands and distant mountains. My thinking was that I live in a tourist town and so it would be interesting to see what image I could make with the deliberate intention of being "touristy".

As I reached my car, I noticed the budding branches on several trees contrasted against the sky. I picked up the point and shoot, deciding to start making images here since I found the compositions engaging. I noticed that there was some sunlight warming the top branches of some of the trees, and I made several images, any one of which I expected might become the daily practice image. A few examples are:

(click to view larger)
(click to view larger)

(click to view larger)

These images haven't been given a final polish through Lightroom, but it isn't hard to see the possibilities that each offers.

I noticed the neighbouring building against the sky, and thought of perhaps pairing one of the tree images with an image of the building, so I made a few images of the building and then left for home.

Once I downloaded the images and started to work with them, I found myself drawn to the image of the building. The image straight out of the camera was somewhat interesting, but I was seeking an image that was a bit more expressive. Noting the halo of clouds above the building, I worked to emphasize that feature of the image and arrived at a version that seemed to express something about the day I had had. In looking at the final image now, I like the contrast of the dark building, the blue sky and the zone of clouds that separates them.

(original, click to view larger)

(final, click to view larger)

No comments: