Dirty Dishes

Usually we put our dirty dishes into the dishwasher right away. However, last night we had some chicken wings while watching TV. The better Half headed upstairs to bed befor me. Then I got too tired to do anything other than place these dishes in the sink and run some water over them so that certian left over matter would not harden onto the surface. I go to be
In the morning I got up and was making the coffee when I noticed a certain beauty and graphic quality to the dishes in the sink. So, foggy eyed, I go get a camera & proceed to snap away.

So what makes this picture work? Well, there are some repeating graphic shapes that adds to the composition. I always see my photographs as a collection of shapes. It is how these shapes are arranged within the frame that makes up the composition. It matters not to me what the shapes are filled in with. In this case the shapes contain the sink, water, and a couple of dishes, and various colors.

Another thing that helps a photograph is texture. The overall texture in this photo is that of softness. The water is murky, subduing the pattern on the plate, muting and softening the colors and the edges.

A third thing that helps thios photo is the light. Light is MOST crucial. Without light we have NO photograph. It just happens that the early morning light was coming in a window and bouncing off the walls near the sink, creating a soft delicate light. No hard edges here. So, we have soft light, soft colors, soft textures, interesting shapes.  All of these things coming together and working together to make a reasonably good photo of of a most mundane subject. 

This is how I go about my day, viewing the world around me as a bunch of inter-related shapes and how the light plays upon them.

Now go ahead and photograph your dirty dishes.