Working the Scene

I went out last night to do some night photography. Friends who know me well are probably keeling over in shock right now, since I normally go to bed with the chickens.

Greg had invited one of his students on a short walkabout, and his assignment was basically this, “Shoot Ugly”. His student loves landscapes, the very definition of pretty, so this was a good exercise to force him out of his comfort zone.

I went along to try and find a new subject to work on and to find some things to shoot for my class.

I’m currently playing around with a theme which I will explore over time, but I wanted to share this series of unedited images of what it means to “work the scene”. I saw this building with the contrasting light colors and something about the scene appealed to me, but I wasn’t sure yet what exactly it was. Was it the way the white light formed a rectangle that replicated the painted rectangle in front of the building. Was it how the white and yellow light so clearly demarcated their zones? Was it the blank stop sign in the glass porch?

I proceeded to walk around the site. At times moving closer or further, other times changing exposure. Many of the variations are so subtle that you have to look carefully for the differences in each picture. I tried excluding or including peripheral elements in my frame, noticing that bright reflections added another element of depth to the scene.

I’m still not entirely sure which one would be my final choice, but there’s something in #6 & #7 that might work. It’ll depend on the final edit if this ends up forming part of a series.

Another scene presented itself. This scene I probably could’ve worked some more, but I knew that frame 1 - 3 were probably going to work. As you can see from this set, I’m really embracing my dark side!