Week 9: Inquiry photo dumb

In this week’s penultimate Free Inquiry post, I will show off some photos that I took with that roll of film that I loaded (and unloaded). I will also connect some of my goals for composition—detailed in my Week 6 Inquiry post—to the photos below.

Self-timer

This was a good challenge. Here was my process for taking a self-timer shot. 1) Ask a friend to stand at the distance away from the camera that I would be standing for timed shot. 2) Focus my lens so that subject appear clear in viewfinder. 3) Mark that spot with a stick, ask friend to move, set timer on my film camera, and walk toward the stick and plan to reach that spot as the timer was going off/be ready for the flash (I took two timed shots, one walking away and one towards camera).

This (timed!) walking away photo that I find almost inspirational turned out quite well. It doesn’t differ drastically in terms of clarity to the feature photo in my Week 5 blog post taken from behind with my iPhone. Obviously it’s much brighter, but that’s Apple v. 1980s Nikon technology.

It was close because the exposure is right; I’m definitely letting the right amount of light into the camera and I am being hit by the sun’s rays, an ideal position for the subject. I would be able to be seen clearly if I had my focus right, adjusting the focus knob to match how far away I was standing from the lens.

Repetition and symmetry

One of my main goals stated at the end of my week 6 post was to use repetition and symmetry in photo composition.

I was wandering around campus and found this utility box. I found it difficult to get truly up close to a pattern that I found interesting and I realize that some of the examples I saw must have been taken with a zoom lens, which is more effective at filling the whole frame homogeneously.

This is a graffiti’d wall in Mystic Vale. I had to edit this photo; I must have taken it from the side not noticing, because it was off-centre post developing and therefore not truly centred to show symmetry. I edited it on my iPhone because I was having trouble doing it on my computer and I remember doing a simple edit for an Instagram photo to tilt it straight. It still looks like it was taken at an angle, but taking a symmetrical photo and editing are two skills I can use in the future.

Below, a neat depth of field photo of a cluster of trees at the edge of Ring Road. I have another like photo that I’m saving for next week too, stay tuned.

Lines

I like capturing cool lines and shadows in my film photography. Here are a couple from this Inquiry roll. Below, a fun brick wall depth shot with shadows crisscrossing. I think the last one one looks like it came from an admissions catalogue in the 80s when the Nikon EM was the best camera available.

Below: “The Clearihue Building, conveniently located across the way from the cafeteria, so you can fetch one last bite before locking yourself in a study room for the night.”

Thank you for following along for the last couple of months. I will be using this blog for fun in the future. As always, please share any thoughts about this post and other in the comments and I will have one last review of this inquiry to share next week!