Wallace Koopmans Artlog

When I first saw this forgotten water bottle I wasn’t to sure what to make of it but as I approached it became clear that this would produce an interesting subject against the ground of the artificial turf.  The clarity achieved by this little camera never ceases to amaze me.  The full size print I have of this (8″x12″) renders every blade of plastic grass clearly.  The slight touch of contrasting colour and the harsh shadow created by the mid day sun all add to this image, making the water bottle stand in relief.

It’s nice when things turn out like you planned even when your pushing the boundaries of your experience.  I needed to take public transit to get downtown Vancouver so I ended up on what is called the “Skytrain” which was originally built for Expo 86.  I brought along my Olympus XA2 because it fits in a pocket and I like the images it produces.  During the commute I considered taking a few exposures inside the train but didn’t really see anything that was all that compelling.  However as I was standing up the entire time I was near the ceiling and observed that the people where smeared into a diffuse reflection above.  So I turned the camera upside down and pressed it against the ceiling.  This did two things, it eliminated any camera shake and recorded the reflections.  Really only one person paid any attention to me and even that was for only a brief moment.

As I was sorting through some resent shots,  I started to think about what made one similar shot better than another.  Both images present the viewer with a single point of interest on a blank background, in fact they are the same subject.  So what are the defining differences?  If we ignore for the moment the difference of shading of the background, I accredit the main difference to be the size of the subject relative to the ground.  The first image gives a greater sense of  scale while the second is a more direct representation, here is a lady bird beetle no more no less.

Sometimes something just grabs your eye as you are walking by.  So as I was getting a coffee the other day and was walking back to my vehical I noticed how the space between the trees mimicked the shape of the arrow on the ground.  Fortunately no one ran me over as I crouched down to get this shot.  The great thing about cameras is the ability to share your vision of the world with others.  It would be easy to assume that we all see things the same but pictures can be as much about the viewer as the creator.

I took this photo during my recent Bellingham photo trip and thought it was a good example of the use of negative space.  The two different areas of black are still recognizable even though there presence on the same image plain results in ambiguity of scale.  I wonder what anyone observing me thought as I moved around making slight adjustments until I felt I had the right angle.  Fortunately I don’t worry about such things while I’m shooting.

If you compare these two images you get a very different feeling from them.  There is a heightened amount of visual tension created by placing the point of interest nearer to the top edge of the frame.  While an increased portion of the pole is also displayed, it is the placement of the focal point that has a greater effect on perception.

I’ve divided the picture into two equal halves,  placed my point of interest in the center and I don’t care.

So why do I believe this picture still works?  The shape of the pump mimics the borders of the image and the texture accentuates the fact this is not meant to be a pretty picture.

Here are some images I shot in the last two weeks with a Pentax ME.  There is a commonality among these images and that is the use of contrast.  The first three use contrast to accentuate texture.  The image of the lone crab apple clinging on is about the contrast of forms, the circular silhouette of the apple against the linear framework of the branches.  The last image is about the contrast of light and dark.

Just a little visual parody of the “rules” of composition.  You can’t help but follow the “leading lines”, they are so obvious that they are actually arrows.  Unfortunately following them doesn’t get you anywhere, unless your parking.

Colours that are analogous,  such as those that lie next to each other on a colour wheel, or are generally neutral can be made  more harmonious through tone.  What is tone?  If you think of the colours in an image in terms of black and white the value  of that color or how dark or light it is, is it’s tonal value.   You can see this in the histogram for this image, all the colours fall within the middle range or middle key.  There is a danger that an image may be static or flat when all the values are so similar and when painting one would likely add something to offset this.  However, the intent of this image is to evoke the feeling of a bright warm morning and the harmony of the tones and colours helps  produce this.

The setup

Creating this image was done by placing the clock on a piece of foam-core. This was in front of a piece of paper which was used to mimic wallpaper and was selected to compliment the clock.  A single flash with a gold translucent material was aimed at another piece of foam-core which would then give an illusion of a window in the reflection of the face of the clock.   A word of advice, check the time on a clock if your trying to represent a particular time.  Initially I must have been in the high arctic because I had morning light at 2:42 AM.  So this one is afternoon light, problem solved.

Another variation