Author: Peter | Prosophos

One rung at a time.

Inspiration, Portrait, Teaching point, Voigtländer 40mm f/1.4 Nokton

I captured a few frames during this sequential climb, but this one – with the searching foot – ultimately prevailed.

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Voigtländer Nokton 40mm @ f/1.4.

After studying this for a while, I realized why I preferred this image to the others.

The floating foot, adds a dynamic quality to the image.  We know he’s climbing, but with the foot between rungs, his movement is emphasized and there is a (tiny) sense of drama: will he find his footing?

More than this, the same lower foot, though not connected to the rung, completes a rung-to-limb schematic echoed in the two rungs above, that ultimately converges and directs our attention to his face (see red arrows below):

(please click on the image to view)

It’s interesting to tease these little visual cues out, though I’d much rather enjoy the images for what they are: precious, personal moments… frozen in time.

Torn film.

Film, Inspiration, Leica M2, Portrait, Voigtländer 40mm f/1.4 Nokton

This was an accident.  It happened when I was developing the film and now it’s flawed, wouldn’t you say?

This was literally the 37th frame of a “36” roll that I messed up as I was loading the film strip into the developing spool.  It was consequently unevenly exposed to the solutions; the film tore as I was removing it from the tank.

But the scene, the mood – the intent – of this image is still conveyed… at least for me.  I look at it and I’m taken there, to that quiet afternoon, even if I can’t remember all the details.

The image, like my memory, is incomplete.

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M2 and Voigtländer Nokton 40mm @ f/1.4.

94 years: anatomy of an image.

Inspiration

People often ask how the image 94 Years came to be.  Simply put, it was an unplanned image that evolved quite naturally.

I was trying to photograph my 94-year-old grandmother, whom I’d been visiting and who was sitting on a couch near the window.

This was the scene:

I had always been interested in her hands, and the story they tell.  I realized that in my “mind’s eye” it was the hands I was interested in here too, and their positioning as they cradled her head.

So, I decided to shift my position – the beautiful constraint of using fixed focal length lenses is that they force you to compose in different ways – and take the photo from above.

The “inspired” composition was arrived at accidentally when she shifted the way she was holding her head.  In the interim, I had increased the shutter speed to avoid blowing out the highlights in the hair and on the hand nearest to the window.  This created a surrounding darkness – a natural vignette – as the details in the dark clothing were masked:

I then cropped the image to, once again, emphasize her hands:

At this point, I had the composition I wanted and I knew that any subsequent post-processing was an opportunity to either enhance or ruin the image.

Following some selective contrast, levels, and progressive vignetting adjustments, I arrived at the final image:

94 Yrs

In looking at this a few years later, I realize that I may have been a little heavy-handed with the post-processing.  But, the image stands as the image was: 94 Years.

I hope this was of interest.

– Peter