Moff.
Requirement 14: Thank Your Instructor | "Appreciation Shouldn't be a Secret"
May 28
This isn't really the end. If you've been paying attention to the dates, you'll notice this one isn't chronological like all the rest. But I have a clear memory of you saying “there are no hard and fast rules to photography”, so I'm pretty sure I have the license to cheat here.
I asked for your advice on what to do with this photo – more than any of my others I couldn’t nail down the story I wanted to tell through my edits. You told me that sometimes, "you just have to make a choice". I ended up deciding on this black & white close crop because I felt it communicated individuality more than my other two versions, and honestly, I think it does it well. The close crop focuses the eye to the subject suspended in empty space, the black & white maintains a sense of intricacy while melding the bright red roses together into a unified gnarled mess, and the subject’s petals are opening to the left – opposed to the natural sweep of an English reader’s eyes...
Curiously, the more I mused over which to include in my final cut, the less difference any of it seemed to make. The story I see in every version of this photo is of my friend Ryan propping me up by the knees on a very short (yet surprisingly steep) hill so that I could take an artsy photo looking up from under a bush. There's nothing I could do in post that would communicate the silliness, vulnerability, and patience that are all present in my personal story for this photo.
I don't know if that's what you had in mind, but I think it has to be my final conclusion. I truly can't thank you enough, Bruce, for giving me an excuse to make memories and the means to beautifully encode them.
Requirement 14: Thank Your Instructor | "Appreciation Shouldn't be a Secret"
May 28
This isn't really the end. If you've been paying attention to the dates, you'll notice this one isn't chronological like all the rest. But I have a clear memory of you saying “there are no hard and fast rules to photography”, so I'm pretty sure I have the license to cheat here.
I asked for your advice on what to do with this photo – more than any of my others I couldn’t nail down the story I wanted to tell through my edits. You told me that sometimes, "you just have to make a choice". I ended up deciding on this black & white close crop because I felt it communicated individuality more than my other two versions, and honestly, I think it does it well. The close crop focuses the eye to the subject suspended in empty space, the black & white maintains a sense of intricacy while melding the bright red roses together into a unified gnarled mess, and the subject’s petals are opening to the left – opposed to the natural sweep of an English reader’s eyes...
Curiously, the more I mused over which to include in my final cut, the less difference any of it seemed to make. The story I see in every version of this photo is of my friend Ryan propping me up by the knees on a very short (yet surprisingly steep) hill so that I could take an artsy photo looking up from under a bush. There's nothing I could do in post that would communicate the silliness, vulnerability, and patience that are all present in my personal story for this photo.
I don't know if that's what you had in mind, but I think it has to be my final conclusion. I truly can't thank you enough, Bruce, for giving me an excuse to make memories and the means to beautifully encode them.