Filmwasters
Which Board? => Photo Essays => : 02Pilot November 12, 2014, 02:42:39 AM
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I do a lot of hiking. Fortunately, I have a variety of options relatively close to home, but it is inevitable that even those many varied trails will sooner or later become familiar. From a photography standpoint, this tends to reduce substantially the interest in shooting in those places, as I've already shot them many times before. Sure, they make for good places to test equipment or kill the end of a roll, but there is little expectation of finding great inspiration or producing much that is new or different.
In an effort to overcome the photographic curse of familiarity, I decided to head out with the specific purpose of taking a series of photos that looked different than what I had produced before. After a bit of thought, I settled on the idea of trying to create a slightly surreal, unsettled, vaguely mysterious look. I loaded my Canon L1 with Tri-X and mounted my recently-acquired Serenar 50/1.9, a lens known to produce some funky effects wide open, with a #25 red filter mounted to shift the tones around from where they would normally be and to allow me to open up the aperture even in good light.
As you might expect, the results were a bit hit-or-miss. Some things just looked normal, some were too dark, and some simply didn't work, but there were a handful that captured the feel I was after to some extent. I decided to present them here in the order they were shot rather than rearrange them - a hike being a sort of self-contained journey, it seemed appropriate to use the photos as mileposts.
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/aegaspari/10Nov2014-2-18_Modified_Border_zpsa1bb89bf.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/aegaspari/10Nov2014-2-17_Modified_Border_zps89a90ff3.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/aegaspari/10Nov2014-2-24_Modified_Border_zps7b5c05e0.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/aegaspari/10Nov2014-2-30_Modified_Border_zps3500dc5e.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/aegaspari/10Nov2014-2-33_Modified_Border_zpsd21cf324.jpg)
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Oooh, like the sun through the reeds.
I understand your predicament completely. I commute to work every day, have been for the last ten years. When I finally get back home after a 12 hour day, it leaves time for not much else than helping the kids with homework and some household chores before beddy-byes.
So I bring my camera to work. I walk from the train station to work every day, a mile and a half of houses and office blocks. I know them all, by heart. I know if I am late or early by the people I meet and where I meet them. I can walk the stretch blindfolded. So what to do? More or less as you have done. Make a difference yourself. Perspective, camera, lens, film - the works. I have one particular view I have photographed a number of times (link below), with everything from camera phone to pinhole, colour, B/W, instant, you name it. But even this approach may run out of steam. Not sure though if it brings me much satisfaction anymore.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ezzie0304/sets/72157627175733076/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/ezzie0304/sets/72157627175733076/)
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Ezzie: as a commute walk goes, that's quite a view!
I am the opposite - I never really leave the house during the week as I work from home. So I'm going to grab a camera and take a roll around the house & garden. Thanks for the idea.
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Great series of photos! I really like the one of the road or path with the statue on the left.
I've struggled with the same problem. I've walked all over Savannah, but after a while I've started to run out of ideas. I think it happens to everyone who is familiar with an area they frequently photograph in.
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for some areas I try to research historical information on a common route or neighborhood. This might inspire you to look at something a bit differently.
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wow! that third is outright surreal :O fun series and good aim!
for some areas I try to research historical information on a common route or neighborhood. This might inspire you to look at something a bit differently.
that's a good tip and providing it together with presenting a photo makes for more to be interested in for the viewer
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Thanks for all the comments. The idea of historical research providing some context is certainly part of trying to get the most out of local photo opportunities, so I'll offer a little for the above photos.
The park in which I was hiking was once clear-cut, virtually all the trees felled to provide charcoal to fuel one of the largest and most important early 19th Century foundries in the US, and also held numerous small iron mines supplying the foundry as well. Among other things, the foundry was crucial to the Union war effort, casting artillery pieces for the Northern armies; it is now long gone, but the foundations remain and have recently been preserved in a park of their own. The second-growth hardwood forest is now quite dense, having had the better part of a century to reclaim the land, but if one looks remnants of the industrial era can still be spotted: the old railbed used to transport material is now one of the trails (you can see a bit of it in the third photo), some of the mine entrances are still visible, a few foundations of old houses remain, and many of the lakes were man-made to provide more reliable sources of water to the people living there (though the old dams are crumbling, but the local beaver population is taking over the job of maintaining them).
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Cant find the photo at the moment. example, I had a photo in a car parking area that was surrounded by these odd and heavy looking pieces of rusted metal. I came to find out that the area was redeveloped ages ago and was previously used for railway cars.
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I like the lens effects on that first one!
Like Ezzie, I walk the same path every day to work, take the same train, etc. And usually take pictures with my pocket camera, the XA. I should try changing that up like you did and see what happens.
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Nice series.. really like the third one
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Great series of images. I really enjoy seeing what others consider to be banal because of familiarity. I suffer the same as I am sure most people do. I try to put my mindset into that of a tourist who is visiting for the first time, not knowing what is around the corner. It can be hard to do, but every now and again things click(pardon the pun). The same route day after day, being so familiar, allows one to really appreciate those rare times when the light is special, or the colours of the season seem especially great or, alternatively, drab.
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Thanks again. I had a feeling that I was not the only one encountering the problem of running out of fresh ideas for familiar subjects.