Father’s Day Images

Ann has been back just over a week and life has just been busy and . . . let’s call it chaotic, or frustrating, or both . . . I’ll leave it at that.  I have some images that I’ve been wanting to work on,but just haven’t had the time to get to them.  I was actually feeling a bit down about it because I thought I was going to wind up going the weekend without a post.  But alas, some lovely light and interesting shadows came to save the day during our Father’s Day morning walk.  And since the best camera is the one you have with you, I had to ask Ann if I could borrow her phone!

Ann and I were engaged in one of our sorely missed conversations during our (relatively late) morning walk when I stopped and looked at these shadows cast by the early morning light.  I made some comment about how it could make an interesting image and Ann said that while she could appreciate the shadows, she really couldn’t see a photograph.  So I asked her for her phone to make the following image.

So much about photography lies in how one precisely frames the world and often it’s that framing that opens new worlds for people.

When I showed Ann the image, she said she sees it now, but then took the phone and made her own image.  And while she was making hers, I saw yet another image, one that provides a bit more context than my closely framed image above, but still maintains that interesting mix of subjects and shadows that the more detailed image has.

I’m not sure if I’ve resolved that top edge very well (these are straight out of Ann’s phone, no cropping at all), but it has some nice qualities.

And, of course, I wouldn’t be very nice of me to not share Ann’s photograph from the same location.  In some ways, I think hers may be the more interesting, even though it doesn’t include that odd shadow with circular spots and the concrete telephone pone that initially caught my eye.  The sophistication of Ann’s image is quite appealing.  From the brightly lit and shadow palm spikes seemingly crossing swords in combat, to the repeating metal spikes behind, with several in sunlight but one slightly backlit, to the call box/shadow, house number and metallic door handle, there is much for the eye to explore in this image.  And, of course, the textures, both physical and through lighting.

It’s strange how images (particularly phone images) can look so much better on the phone than on the web.  The door handle has an incredible appearance on the phone image that simply lacks online.

And I guess another strange thing about these images is how, for once, I framed the image (at least my second one) wider than Ann did!  That indeed is something rare.  I would call these sketch images a rather nice Father’s Day present.