Thursday, May 06, 2004
A Little Bit of Something ...
Another one of those Useful Clichés that I thought I had strongly wired into my brain is "a little bit of something in a lot of nothing."
I was surprised, then, to find just one recent photo of mine that seems to follow this particular theme. I took this picture, Bump Tile and Leaf, on one of a number of photographically productive lunchtime walks around Towson last fall when I was working there.
"Bump Tile" is a term of my own making - I don't know quite what to call it - it's bumpy terra-cotta that you see at every pedestrian crossing in Towson as an aid to the Vision-Impaired. Ironically, I thought it was quite visually interesting, and I took several photos at one crossing. Nice texture, but it needed something... hey how about that leaf over there!
Now why did I think I had more examples of this Useful Cliché? Maybe because I've admired the ones I've seen that were really well done.
Do you have an example of "a little bit of something in a lot of nothing?" Or maybe its cousin, a little bit of bright color in a lot of black/white/neutral color? A little bit of smooth in a lot of texture, or vice-versa?
Send me a .jpg or a url, and I'll link to it in one of my next few blog entries.
By the way, take a look at Bump Tile and Leaf - do you see outward bumps or inward dimples? Keep looking, then look away and try again. Did the bumps change to dimples or vice-versa? In real life, the tile is bumpy of course - outward bumps that a Vision-Imparied person can feel. But after I printed this photo, I noticed that the shadow and highlight on each bump sometimes fool the eye into seeing dimples. If you have trouble switching from one to the other, try rapidly scrolling the image up and down - it seems to work for me :-)
Another one of those Useful Clichés that I thought I had strongly wired into my brain is "a little bit of something in a lot of nothing."
I was surprised, then, to find just one recent photo of mine that seems to follow this particular theme. I took this picture, Bump Tile and Leaf, on one of a number of photographically productive lunchtime walks around Towson last fall when I was working there.
"Bump Tile" is a term of my own making - I don't know quite what to call it - it's bumpy terra-cotta that you see at every pedestrian crossing in Towson as an aid to the Vision-Impaired. Ironically, I thought it was quite visually interesting, and I took several photos at one crossing. Nice texture, but it needed something... hey how about that leaf over there!
Now why did I think I had more examples of this Useful Cliché? Maybe because I've admired the ones I've seen that were really well done.
Do you have an example of "a little bit of something in a lot of nothing?" Or maybe its cousin, a little bit of bright color in a lot of black/white/neutral color? A little bit of smooth in a lot of texture, or vice-versa?
Send me a .jpg or a url, and I'll link to it in one of my next few blog entries.
By the way, take a look at Bump Tile and Leaf - do you see outward bumps or inward dimples? Keep looking, then look away and try again. Did the bumps change to dimples or vice-versa? In real life, the tile is bumpy of course - outward bumps that a Vision-Imparied person can feel. But after I printed this photo, I noticed that the shadow and highlight on each bump sometimes fool the eye into seeing dimples. If you have trouble switching from one to the other, try rapidly scrolling the image up and down - it seems to work for me :-)
