True Flow

This Image:

As the name suggests, I feel that this frame is the purest expression of flow. Smooth, elegant and light.

 

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Project Overview

 

A. Introduction

My project explores the nature of “flow”, and looks at its multiple permeations in the world, both natural and man-made. I am interested in the inherent challenge in expressing movement in a still image. Moreover, I am not interested in mere movement; my interest is in fluid movement, or flow.

In retrospect, every aspect of my life involves flow. Whether it is my kayaking career, ski racing, or my love of clean and simple design, I pursue flow. But how can one express the emotion—the feeling—of flow? As they say, a picture can be worth a thousand words.

I researched the study of fluid dynamics on the Internet to find possible subjects (science clarified ). The three examples of fluid movement that I decided to explore include:

1.Water

2.Smoke

3.Transportation (both vehicular and pedestrian)

B. Influences

My initial inspiration came from the work of Amar Ramesh. His work with smoke photography, and what he can do with his images in collage work is amazing. An interesting connection that I discovered while researching the art of flow and fluid dynamics was the artwork of Jackson Pollock (Technica). I had not thought of his painting as fluid, but it really is. While his work is not photography, it is certainly influential and noteworthy.

C. Technical Setup

Water:

I focused on river currents, both slow and fast. I used a slow shutter with some ND filters and a polarizing filter so that I could shoot during the day. I explored the expressiveness of both abstract and literal images.

Smoke:

I used an incense stick as my smoke source. I shot with no ambient light, and a very strong side light (500w Halogen), with a barn door to prevent light from leaking onto the black background. Most of my shots were in the neighborhood of 1/100 @ f4 ISO320. Ideally, I would have had enough light to shoot at f8, and ISO100 but I was unable to generate enough light. I experimented with various color balances to effect the emotions of the images. I chose to shoot at 1/100 over 1/200 to really highlight the movement of the smoke, at the expense of crispness in some instances.

Transportation:

I shot at night in uptown Charlotte. I found various elevated positions to incorporate the static city and the dynamic cars. I found it interesting, and challenging, to incorporate both the movement of pedestrians and automobiles in the same images. Slow shutter speeds, low ISO and small apertures helped me to get the results that I was looking for.

D. What I learned, what I would do differently, and where I would like to go next.

Regarding my goal of expressing fluidity in a static frame, I feel that I did a good job of expressing my feeling of flow. I learned that it took both abstract and literal images to demonstrate my emotions. Also, for a lot of these images I had to shoot a lot of frames to get what came out to about 30 good images. My estimate is roughly 1000 frames total. I think that this partly because of the nature of nature—it is very unpredictable.

I learned that it takes a lot of continuous light to be able to light a subject at a preferable f8 1/200 ISO100. I really enjoyed experimenting with lighting and the dramatic results that can be achieved. However, having absolute control over the light really forces you to understand what you are doing, and it can be challenging to achieve the look that you want.

If I could do this again, I would try to find a 1000W Halogen and use a reflector for the smoke photography. For my traffic photographs, I would have liked to be able to shoot from elevation in uptown. As it was, I was only able to shoot into uptown. Looking straight down on traffic would have been an interesting shot, with rich shapes and patterns.

If I were to expand this set of images, I would like to feature a group of images featuring the movement of people.

The one true failure in my project was my attempt to photograph oil in water. Finding a vessel that was absolutely clear proved nearly impossible. I also experimented with lighting the vessel from the side, the bottom and both. I was unable to get any shots that I was really excited by. I think that to make it work, I would have needed either a LOT of light, or a large enough tank that I could get some depth of field to be able to hit the focus right. As it was, the lens was too close to the bubbles to get sharp images. Additionally, the small vessel made it difficult to capture pleasing compositions.

Bibliography

science clarified . science clarified . 5 April 2012 .

Technica, ARS. Wired. 19 August 2011. 5 April 2012 .

 

Done