{"id":14858,"date":"2013-06-13T23:28:04","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T03:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=14858"},"modified":"2017-08-12T14:01:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T18:01:00","slug":"deconstructing-a-photograph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/deconstructing-a-photograph\/","title":{"rendered":"Father and son portrait – Deconstructing a photograph"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Father and son portrait – Deconstructing a photograph<\/h1>\n

My friend, Chuck Arlund, visited New York with his son Lachlan, for a few days. At the end of the trip, I had a short opportunity to photograph them. Since this is Chuck, whom I greatly admire, and his son (who is so used to a camera by now), I wanted to come up with something outside of the usual guaranteed way of working with a longer lens, and a simpler background. I wanted something a little out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n

What I envisioned was some place in New York that was very busy, and then go to a slow shutter speed, and let everyone that is moving around them, turn into ghostly figures. The idea I had in mind, was with the two of them central in the image, and figures flowing around them on either side. I wanted that symmetry.<\/p>\n

But as usually happens, real life limitations and opportunities kick in, and you end up with something slightly different than originally envisioned.<\/p>\n

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The merits of a photograph<\/h2>\n

Now, I have this half-formed philosophy in my mind, that the effort you went to to create a photograph, is largely not that important. Whether you were hanging by one hand from a bus that was careening over a cliff as you took the shot, is of little consequence. In other words, the trouble you went to to create a photo, is largely irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Unless mentioning the person or place or event provides necessary context, a photograph created for artistic intent, should stand on its own. Impact should not have to be explained. Neither should excuses be made for lack of impact.<\/p>\n

Yet, there are limitations that you need to deal with while taking a photograph, that the viewer should not have to know specifically. The photograph should have impact. Regardless.<\/p>\n

How does all this relate to the photo at the top? I was unsure about its impact and asked for opinions on Facebook. Interesting. Aside from a few informing me how I could control my depth-of-field, the response was very good. A lot of questions and comments came up, and this might make for a good point of discussion here.<\/p>\n

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The idea and the set-up<\/h2>\n

As mentioned, the original idea I had in mind was a wide shot, with a sweeping view of a street scene, with movement all around them, while they are still. In that sense, they would be isolated amongst all the movement. I wanted to do this all in-camera, and still add flash on them to light them perfectly.<\/p>\n

Times Square immediately came to mind as a place where there’d be a horde of people milling around, but which would offer wide enough place to shoot this. Yet the direction we could shoot in was limited by the pedestrian flow, barriers, as well as policemen that asked me to hurry up. So the pressure is on to make the idea work, here, and now.<\/p>\n