Searching for light - Mr Moo and Backlight

Hi everyone!

So leading on from my last post I have been getting out of the office every lunch time to take a walk, exercise my eyes and see more of the little nuances of the world around me.

Down the road from the office, in a quietish back road that a walk down lives a cat called Mr Moo.  He is, to my mind, an awesome kitty, got one of those real squashed up faces that suggests he may have run into a closed door or something unfortunate like that!!  So he is not the best looker but he does have a charm to him.

Ok in reality I am a sucker for cats, a definite cat person so no matter what I cannot hate on Mr Moo!!  The other day on my walk I cam across him on the curb and he bowled over to say hi, I figured why not get a snap of him, might as well seeing as I was there right?

I did not want to settle for a blah shot so i tried to move around him as he sat on the curb and look for a way to portray him in a good way.  It was then that i noticed the light and how it was lighting up his coat.  I realised the sun was at an angel that meant it was not directly overhead but rather coming in at an angel and the result was it created an almost halo like glow around Mr Moo.

Mr Moo in all his glory  -  50mm; f/4; ISO 100; 1/60sec

I can say with full confidence that this lighting is not something i would have noticed straightaway say two weeks ago.  Sure i might have got there eventually but in this instance I noticed it almost immediately, I realised my eyes have started to see the light as it were!!

I am so pleased with the resulting photograph as well.  The back-light has brought another dimension to Mr Moo, it has enhanced his look and appeal.  Well maybe not his appeal, in truth he does look like he is plotting something diabolical, but he still looks really cool and I believe the light has everything to do with it in this case.

These walks at lunch time are definitely helping and my search fro light is gathering pace and some really cool photographic encounters and experiences along the way!

Thanks for stopping by!

Seeing and looking, is there a difference?

The longer that I spend in this journey of photography the more I realize the difference there is between looking and seeing.  I'll try explain what I mean over the course of this post.

Very often I will walk around and my eyes just take in the world around me as one big blob. I struggle to see the smaller details of life, I think we all do to a degree.  When we were kids we saw the world with wonder and awe! Everything we saw amazed us and delighted our senses.

Now that I live further away from my workplace and cannot go home for lunch I am making an effort to take my camera and go for a walk every lunch break.  I don't have a specific scene I want to photograph rather, I want to give my eyes a work out.  I want to re-energize that child like awe I have lost.  I want to see things, shapes, patterns and colors that I normally miss or do not notice in the world around me.

Thus far it has been a really rewarding process!  It has helped take my time and really examine the world around me.  The areas I am walking around in I have walked through countless times but slowly I am seeing more and more, rather than just looking around me.  Prior to this exercise I would never have noticed these droplets of water on leaves, perfectly preserved despite it being midday.

Midday water droplets -  55mm;  ISO 100;  1/250sec;  f/5.6

I would not have examined these autumn leaves as intently either.  It also helps me think about how I could represent a relatively dull subject in a more exciting way, a few experiments lead to what I think is a pretty cool zoom blur effect.

Autumn Explosion  -  53mm;  ISO 100;  1/30sec;  f/22

This process has so far been very rewarding.  My eyes are starting to see more in the world around me and as a result I think some of my photography is getting better.  Try it, get out there and try and see things around you instead of just looking and seeing the same drab world you think you are seeing on a daily basis.


Thanks for stopping by!