Photo of the Week
January 14, 2016
Sunny Winter Afternoon
Woodland Park
Seattle, WA
Woodland Park
Seattle, WA
I got my first camera when I was in elementary school. Soon after, I received a copy of the Kodak book How to Take Good Pictures. Since then, I have collected earlier versions of the book, which was originally titled How to Make Good Pictures. Every copy of the book gives the admonition, "For best results, snapshots should be made with the subject in bright sunlight. The sun should be behind your back or over the shoulder. If the sun shines directly into the lens, it will blur and fog the picture." And so, for the past 40 years, I have mostly taken my images in good light, for fear of angering the photography police. However, every once in awhile, I boldly break from the norm and shoot into the sun.
I love to photograph in lower Woodland Park in Seattle. I used to live a block away and have enjoyed the mature maples and other trees, as well as the rolling landscape.
Walking back to my car after a midday visit, I noticed the beautiful Winter silhouette of a barren tree. As I got closer, the sun nearly blinded me with its direct intensity. I decided to break from my Kodak training and shoot the image anyway. I set the camera to f/22, in hopes of minimizing the size of the sunspot and took a photo, letting the camera choose the shutter speed.
The photo came out underexposed, as the camera tried to average the tones of the scene. The result was an image which looks more moonlit than sunlit. I loved the drama and intensity of the tree.
Three cheers for breaking rules evry so often.
Here is an image closer to what the scene actually looked like:
