Hello!
Today we went for a mini-hike up to a “lookout”. Wanting to play with something different I grabbed one of my two Nikon Z6 mirrorless cameras and my wife’s 85mm 1.8. As per usual on our hikes, I was around 10 – 20 metres ahead of the other two and I saw a nice composition involving the little one.
As per usual, when she saw the camera on her, she immediately “Struck a fashion pose” totally ruining what I had in mind. Upon importing the photos from the hike and looking at them on my “I must be compensating for something” 32″ 4K computer monitor, I saw this photograph, immediately clicked one of my black and white presets (“Hasellblad Square” to be exact), did some quick tweaking and what you have is what you see here.
The funny thing is, this is the first photo I’ve taken in a while that I’ve wanted to print big.
WordPress really crushes the photos on upload. It looks much better if you look at it on a larger screen than a phone and click the image to see it enlarged.
My intention is not to flood the blog with photographs of my daughter but with our movements being a little restricted at the moment, my available pool of muses is rather reduced. I hope you don’t mind the frequency.
A comment within the Average Suburban Dad Facebook Group (come and join us, we are lovely) made me think about my photographic approach.
“Absolutely love this study of lines Richard … “
This comment was made by a longtime musical colleague who has a long term interest in photography herself. I had to look back at the photo and yes, there is a lot of lines there. But the thing that flew to my mind so quickly I nearly fell over was, I didn’t take the photo because of the lines.
Do not be misunderstanding me, If I have taken a photograph that makes you smile or brings you enjoyment, I’ll take it as a win, but I can say with absolute certainty that the photograph I took, had nothing to do with lines.
These last few days I’ve tried to find a term that sat comfortably with me. I think I’ve landed on “empathic”. Although well versed in the technical side of photography (you could plonk me down anywhere within the exposure triangle and I’ll get you out of it without resorting to a slide rule), I’ve always been an emotional photographer. I’ll take a technically bad photograph that draws an emotional response over a dull but perfectly exposed image any day of the week.
Whilst I don’t expect the photograph of the pizza shop sign to draw any emotions, it sits well with me as a nice clean image that is pleasant to observe.
Although I enjoy hanging around other ‘togs, I’ve typically avoided the camera club crowd as my admittingly limited experience with their approach to photography and competitions is more leaning towards the technical perfection side of things. Whilst the world of photography is suitable large enough to cater for the entire spectrum, I know that I sit firmly on the other side.
That’s it for now. Talk to you soon. Stay safe.
Richard
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Photo Information:
Nikon Z6
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 85mm 1:1.8 G @ 85mm
1/1600 | f/1.8 | ISO 100
Saturday October 2, 2021 @ 12:56
Seaford, Victoria, Australia
#71
You are on point when you describe your photographs as empathetic. It is easy to feel the emotion in each one. A point in the photo of the pizza shop is the absolute stillness in the area which most in Melbourne are probably feeling. Well done and keep them coming.