Sunday, October 14, 2012

More of the fence

click photo to enlarge
In a recent post I mentioned how, in common with most photographic enthusiasts, I make multiple exposures of a subject that I feel is going to produce a good photograph. But I also observed that, in the great majority of instances, the first or second shot that I take usually proves to be the best, and that the subsequent ones rarely improve on them in any way.

But, a subject that can produce one good photograph can often produce a couple more slightly different photographs, and I frequently find myself "working over" a subject, trying to find in it everything that it has to offer photographically speaking. In the past I've likened this to mining a photographic seam in the way that miners try to extract every last piece of coal before moving their machinery on to the next location. The fence I encountered the other day offered that kind of opportunity and today I've posted a couple of the other photographs I took of it.

The main one has a semi-abstract look that appeals to me, and I was pleased that the newly planted, alder trees still had enough leaves on them to add some shadows to the bottom of the image. The idea of the smaller photograph appealed for the same reasons that yesterday's did - the ambiguity of real sky juxtaposed with a photograph of sky. I was tempted to include the graffiti that was at the bottom of the sky photograph but it was just too coarse for family viewing! However, the scratch and and the odd mark add just enough to make it clear what is being viewed.

The other photographs on the fence were old, black and white shots of Wisbech. They were the work of Lilian Ream who ran a photographic studio in the town from 1909 to 1949. She did any work that came her way including portraits, events and news. I didn't manage to make a satisfactory image that included any of her displayed work, but I did buy a book of her photographs from the local museum.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 47mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On