This photo was taken for an assignment for the GT Photo Club. The theme for the week was "Broken," so we were supposed to take a picture that somehow embodied that theme. I had been walking past this broken glass on my way to and from class several times a day all week, and finally found the time to go out and shoot it. The next day, someone had cleaned up the glass and it was gone. Goes to show you shouldn't wait to shoot something you're interested in--it's all only temporary.
The picture was conceived, pre-visualized, shot, and processed within about an hour and half. This is a markedly different approach than my other pictures, some of which I've been working on for months. I think there are some virtues in this fast-paced approach, at least some of the time. A raw or half-processed photograph sitting on a hard drive is useless--something has to get produced, even if it is a bit rough around the edges.
I just discovered the GT Photo Club a few weeks ago, and joined it for exactly this kind of thing. If I let it, it will give me a sense of obligation to pick up my camera and take pictures. Knowing me, I will quickly let my schoolwork overtake me, and not make time for photography, which should probably be as high a priority as coursework, if only for my own sanity. It looks like school already gets in the way, though; I found out this morning that I will have to miss the next two Photo Club meetings due to some extra stuff I have to do for a certain class. C'est la vie.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Broken
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1 comment:
It is pretty clear that you are getting better at this stuff. This picture is a good example of your developing "visual literacy" as you put it. People walking down the sidewalk at Tech wouldn't see this as you saw it. It's one thing to take a picture of something beautiful, it is quite another to take a picture of a dirty sidewalk with broken glass and create an image that is beautifully composed and that also evokes emotion from within the viewer.
Things I like: I think this is the first image you've posted on this blog that has made me feel something. A lot of your images are compositionally interesting, but this one has emotional appeal as well. (Not to say that the others are bad because they lack emotional appeal.) The subject of the image (broken glass on a sidewalk) begs the question "what happened?" This evokes a sense of wonder which creates another element of interest very different from the interests derived from composition. The sepia tones create a mood that is as used and broken as the glass on the sidewalk. Of course, not everyone would agree because the specific emotional appeal derived from the image is dependent on the individual viewer.
Compositionally, I like the texture of the wall and the light gradient that stretches the diagonal of the image from the dark left bottom corner to the lighter right upper corner. I also like the headlights of the car because they add visual interest to a point other than the glass that is still along the diagonal of the gradient.
Things that could be better: I don't have too many complaints. I just wish that the glass was more noticeable or interesting. Perhaps if there was water sparkling on the surface or if it was catching the light in a special way. Here, it almost blends in with the leaves.
Oh yeah, and one more thing: I love you.
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