Thursday, April 21, 2005
Smooth... Textured
I've been going back through some older photos, many taken with my first digital camera, a Canon A40 2MP point-and-shoot.
When I got the A40 around Labor Day 2002, it was at my wife's suggestion. She wanted a digital camera for family photos and to record her pre-Kindergarten class. I thought it would be cool to have to take photos for selling stuff on eBay, but not much more than that.
At the time, I was going through my born-again-photographer phase, and having grown up 30 years earlier, photographically speaking, with film and metal, mechanical, manual cameras, digital and Wunderplastik just didn't appeal to me.
How wrong I was! I found that the A40 was not just a good, but a great tool with which to make my artsy-fartsy photos. Being able to see the results immediately, at least on a small scale, is a great advantage, I found. You are much more quickly able to absorb what works and doesn't work.
Here are two images that seem to work. The first one is from my Cousin Karen's deck . I like the curve of the chair, echoed by its shadow, and the arc of the table rim, repeated by the glowing shadow cast on the chair.
Cousin Karen's Deck July 2003 Canon A40
Here's another one of my photos from Lee Airport, the little airstrip that could. This is a vintage Taylorcraft, shooting downward through one set of wing struts. I like the combination of the straight diagonals with the teardrop shape of the wheel pants. The bold colors on a neutral background and the raindrops left from the storm 15 minutes earlier are nice touches, I think.
Abstract Taylorcraft May 2003 Canon A40
One thing I noticed that both images share is the contrast of smooth surfaces against textured ones. In the table-and-chair photo, the smooth white plastic of the chair contrasts with the textured glass table top. For the Taylorcraft photo, the aerodynamically smooth aircraft surfaces contrast with the rough texture of the parking apron.
The smooth-textured thing seems to be another one of those patterns that the photo-lobe of my brain seems to like.
When I got the A40 around Labor Day 2002, it was at my wife's suggestion. She wanted a digital camera for family photos and to record her pre-Kindergarten class. I thought it would be cool to have to take photos for selling stuff on eBay, but not much more than that.
At the time, I was going through my born-again-photographer phase, and having grown up 30 years earlier, photographically speaking, with film and metal, mechanical, manual cameras, digital and Wunderplastik just didn't appeal to me.
How wrong I was! I found that the A40 was not just a good, but a great tool with which to make my artsy-fartsy photos. Being able to see the results immediately, at least on a small scale, is a great advantage, I found. You are much more quickly able to absorb what works and doesn't work.
Here are two images that seem to work. The first one is from my Cousin Karen's deck . I like the curve of the chair, echoed by its shadow, and the arc of the table rim, repeated by the glowing shadow cast on the chair.
Cousin Karen's Deck July 2003 Canon A40
Here's another one of my photos from Lee Airport, the little airstrip that could. This is a vintage Taylorcraft, shooting downward through one set of wing struts. I like the combination of the straight diagonals with the teardrop shape of the wheel pants. The bold colors on a neutral background and the raindrops left from the storm 15 minutes earlier are nice touches, I think.
Abstract Taylorcraft May 2003 Canon A40
One thing I noticed that both images share is the contrast of smooth surfaces against textured ones. In the table-and-chair photo, the smooth white plastic of the chair contrasts with the textured glass table top. For the Taylorcraft photo, the aerodynamically smooth aircraft surfaces contrast with the rough texture of the parking apron.
The smooth-textured thing seems to be another one of those patterns that the photo-lobe of my brain seems to like.
