Friday, July 16, 2004
Kishke-Based Photography
Sometimes we go out and find images, and sometimes they find us.
Yesterday evening after work, I needed to attend a meeting in Owings Mills, about an hour from home, until 9 PM. Instead of getting home hungry and late, I invited myself to stay at Mom's apartment in Pikesville, about 10 minutes from the meeting - a comfortable bed and free meals, too!
Heading to work this morning, I decided to skip the Baltimore Beltway traffic and take the scenic route, which took me right past my old elementary school. Just as I got to a stop sign by the school, I saw something out of the corner of my eye - a set of three helically-coiled airbrake hoses trailing down the back of a parked semi-tractor's cabin. Blue, red, and yellow.
It was a photo-intuitive moment.
My intuition told me that there was a decent image to be isolated here. My first thought was to make a mental note and keep moving, but I decided to stop, get out, and make a few exposures.
The morning sun gave me some good illumination of the coils, but I was worried about the scruffy spare tire hanging in the background. Oh well, take it anyway - the shapes and colors are good, and digital exposures are "free!"
A few hours and a little photoshop later, the scruffy tire has become a nice jet-black background, which helps make the vivid blue and red coils pop out of the image.
Sometimes we photograph with our heads, and sometimes with our kishkes (guts.) Today was a kishke day.
