Thursday, December 23, 2010

Night Lights (& Window Washings)

One of my favourite parts of Christmas is the Christmas tree. I love the lights, the decorations, and just having a living tree in my house. Decorating the tree is one of my favourite of the family traditions at my house. This year, I decided that I would spend a little bit of time photographing the tree, and once I saw what mis-focusing the lens did, I knew I was onto something.

The first image, made by focusing beyond the lights on the tree, is an example of a few pictures I made with this technique. The second was a bit harder. I took a Film SLR that i haven't had the pleasure of using yet, and opened up the entire back. After that, I opened the aperture of the camera, and set the shutter release to Bulb, so that it would remain open as long as my finger remained on the shutter release. A combination of the distortion of looking through two lenses and that the main focus was on the camera itself, made the lights in the background, a very dominant element, into a sort of secondary focus.

This shows the main difference between the two images; The first is pretty, and the second is saying something. It has a message and a purpose, as opposed to solely aesthetic qualities.

Archipelago Photography: Islands of thought and image, connected with a name.