The Daily Shoot 101 and 102

15 years ago

For Wednesday, February 24 (#ds101), the Daily Shoot’s assignment was “There is often a conflict between traditional and contemporary. Make a photo that shows this tension.”

All righty, then. The very first thing that popped into my head, as it did a lot of people’s, was technology, with architecture coming in second place. For Colorado Springs, the only real place for taking a photo of the juxtaposition of the old and the new, in terms of architecture, would be downtown or the Old North End. I didn’t have much time at lunchtime to take the trip down there (it’s 12 miles or so from home), besides which I wasn’t coming up with any great ideas of the top of my head apart from showing the Pioneers Museum — that is, the old courthouse — reflected in the glass of the new one. It will make a good photo, but not this particular Wednesday, with my particular workload that day.

So I copped out to a certain extent and went the technology route. I’d just done calculator vs. slide rule, so this time I thought I’d make a little joke and did old-style dictionary opened at “traditional” and new style dictionary on an iPhone showing “contemporary”.

Not a great photo, I’ll admit. It was a bit rushed in crappy light: the poor old camera didn’t know how to expose the paper with the iPhone screen glaring forth. I’d like to revisit the subject one day — at least in the sense of photographing a traditional dictionary, perhaps with lots of bokeh.

(The main dictionary is the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, and the one on my iPhone is an electronic version of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.)

The next day’s task, Thursday’s (#ds102) was just... horrible. “Negative space can be just as important to a composition as your primary subject. Explore negative space in a photograph.” What the...?

First stop was wikipedia to see what it said about negative space. Pictures of vases with faces in the negative space? There seemed to be a germ of an idea in the description  “Negative space can be used to depict a subject in a chosen medium by showing everything around the subject but not the subject itself. Usage of negative space will produce a silhouette of the subject.” I really had no idea what to do. None at all. I was feeling upset from a couple of family phone calls that morning anyway, I was fresh out of ideas, so I just decided to drop that particular assignment.

Until I went out tonight to shoot the next assignment, when I serendipitously came across a shot that cried out negative space, at least to me.

I’d gone to the Fine Arts Center (FAC) downtown to be measured for my costume (earlier in the week I’d landed a part in Crazy for You, opening in May), and I was planning to wander around afterwards to try and satisfy the next assignment. It was getting dark, and I didn’t hold out for any great photos, especially as I’d just brought along my middle zoom (Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6, my favorite lens for normal daylight stuff). I walked to my car in the car park, looked back, and there it was.

The sculpture in bronze in silhouette is of a naked family group facing the FAC main entrance. Although I’ve read the description plaque several times, I cannot remember the sculptor nor the name of the piece (and for some reason the FAC website does not describe it either). I’ll update this post later with the details.

So, a day late perhaps, but I’m quite pleased with the result. Note to self: take the monopod next time. It was a 1/15 sec exposure at f/3.5, wide open, and I was balancing the camera on a wall for stability.

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