#Every84 - Mementos and Memories - Many of my photos look as though they are snapshots that I just grab and keep on going. Most are not that simple, though. Before the next #Every84 comes up, I would like to talk about the creation of this, the most recent #Every84 I posted.
This pic, like many, started with me noticing a scene that I thought would make a good photo. I saw Fawn's bronzed baby slippers sitting on our dresser in the sunlight. I wanted the shoes to be the most prominent part of the scene, so I grabbed a wide angle lens and got right up on them and focused on the shoes. The lens is a 16-35mm. Sixteen was too wide as it brought too much of the background into the frame. Thirty-five was just right. I framed the pic so that the shoelaces (in strong sunlight) were in the left third of the frame and the little spot of sunlight was in the top corner (I liked the mood that the spot of sunlight through the blinds created).
I made the pictures out of focus in the background so they would not overpower the pic. They are there as a hint.
The brightest parts of a picture get our attention first, so you want the brightest parts to be in focus. The sun was shining on the toe of the shoe and on the pictures in the background, so I put them in shadow by shading them with a piece of cardboard. Then, the sun was mostly shining on the lace and most everything else was in shadow. I still had that bright spot of sunlight in the upper left (which I had intentionally put in the frame), so in Photoshop, I darkened it and all the rest of the edges of the picture to confine the viewer's eye in the frame.
Finally comes the name of the piece - "Mementos and Memories". I started out calling it "Family", but I realized this was a little vague. "Mementos and Memories" calls attention to mementos - the shoes, and then brings out the pictures in the background as the memories.
Things I would do differently now? I think the picture would be better composed if I had put the shoelaces at the point where the left third and top third intersect (or maybe where the left third and bottom third intersect). I would have darkened the spot of sunshine in the upper left even more. I would also have darkened or shaded the glint of sunshine on the toe of the shoe. I'm never satisfied with my photos, but sometimes you just have to pull the trigger and publish.
There - aren't you glad you asked? (Nobody actually asked, you just find things to do when in quarantine).
#Every84 is a project I am pursuing in 2020 to inspire my creativity. I have pledged to produce and post an image every 84 hours - which is twice a week (7 days a week times 24 hours a day is 168 hours - half of that is 84 - thus #Every84). Do a search on #Every84 on Facebook to see past installments of this project.
