Usually, you look over an area and you might like something about it, a bridge, the color of a sky, a feature of a building, etc. So you try to find the right angle or the way to highlight a feature or, well, there are lots of reasons to take a picture.
But sometimes, I don’t know why I take a picture, or more precisely, why I take the picture I take. As in the following picture, which I took even though, at the time, there was no thought about it. I raised the camera when I saw the scene and shot it. All within a few seconds.
In retrospect, I think I know what it was that got me reacting. There are stark contrasts, very obvious lines, angles, curves, and bold colors against a colorless background. By colorless I mean white but it serves to show the shadows, lines, and the colors of the umbrellas as well as the shapes of the letters. And there is texture on the white walls. Also, the letters have shadows cast by the same letter or others.
All in all, much too much to take in individually unless you’re going to take a while to take it all in before you decide what to do.
So it seems you can sort of “see” all these separate properties, or characteristics, and take it in without any real conscious thought. You don’t really get all the individual properties in any meaningful way, you just get the whole. The result is you take the picture and really not know why.
Well, other than I liked it. But come to think of it, at the time I really didn’t think about that either.
Hopefully, this might make some sense to someone.
Thanks, and as always, comments are welcome.
Ed Gleichman
FineWorldPhotography.com
Ed Gleichman – FineArtAmerica