Are You The Cameraman?: photography close to home

About this blog title

I cannot tell you how many times I have shown up at events with a couple of cameras around my neck, a gadget bag full of odds & ends and a lighting kit and have been asked that question. If it happened once every few years, that would be one thing. But it happens a LOT. It's like getting pulled over by the police and he's standing there with uniform, gun, flashing lights and asking him "Are you a cop?" I would love to come back with a witty reply, such as "No, I am Jesus. Don't you recognize my beard?" However, I cannot be that rude.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Day 239: What Caught My Eye Today

It has been most pleasant these last couple of days in Chaumont, NY. Sunshine and in the sixties today. It is Wednesday, the day we put our trash out on the street for the village to collect. It is one of the services we get in exchange for paying our property taxes. So, about 8:00am I open the front door to take the trash out and immediately my eyes zero in on a small leaf speckled with rain drops on the front porch.

I go back in and get a camera and begin to make some snaps of it. I worked it a bit.; By that I mean that I took a few shots varying the exposures, a little underexposed, a little overexposed. The rain drops and the light are what first attracted my attention. After the first few exposures I began to change my angle of view, getting down low, including the homes across the street in the background. So it is that I "worked" the subject. I probably gave it ten minutes. By then the light had changed and the leaf was in shadow. This is pretty typical of how I go about photographing something that catches my eye. Much different than going to a job and being paid to make a picture that satisfies certain criteria with subject matter the client needs photographed.