Monday, January 19, 2009

Simple or complex?


Pier, originally uploaded by jiihaa.


Snowing, originally uploaded by jiihaa.


Laajalahti, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Some photographers have an enviable gift of simplicity - catching unique situations where parts come together to form breathtaking simplicity. Others have the gift of taking photos with overwhelming complexity but still making it possible for the viewer to tackle the image.

I don't have either talent, but as I try to develop my photography, I run into both kinds of possibilities. Here are three photos from today, from the Laajalahti bay this afternoon when it was starting to darken. The cloud cover was heavy, and there was little colors in the landscape. In fact, despite there being fresh snow, there was surprisingly little contrast in the photos.

What I tried to catch were shapes instead of colors. Perhaps I should have tried black and white, but I didn't realize it at the time, and although I tried some black and white versions in post-processing, they didn't work too well.

It is still a mystery to me why certain photos seem to work and others don't. These are the best from today, and I feel there is a bit of something which is right, but more of something which doesn't really work. But it is the photographer who fails, and not the subject of the photographs.

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