Beginner Determined to Find Subjects

[Sony Corleone]

Saul Leiter said, "Everything is suitable to be photographed." I don't know if I buy that, but I try to tell myself there is always something around me to shoot, even if I'm sitting around the house.

I decided to try seeing if I could try to make my shower and a bottle of bleach more interesting.

A6700247 rotate crop bw LK dark by Cosmo Bogus, on Flickr

A6700249_DxObw low key by Cosmo Bogus, on Flickr

 

[lindsay]

The bleach image in particular put me in mind of a horror movie, so it definitely works. The second image doesn't have an obvious subject to me though.

 

[gramps]

As an aside, spraying bleach solution is a bad idea!

 

[Sony Corleone]

I am digging through ancient photos to try out software. I found a couple of old Canon 350D shots I took while some guys were moving a lathe. I'm not generally a black and white guy, but I plan on doing more of it. The originals are in color.

I wish I had put more thought into framing the photos back then, but this shows how editing can resurrect zombie shots. They are not great, but I would call them acceptable.

IMG_4577DxO bw lk by Cosmo Bogus, on Flickr

IMG_4574DxO bw lk by Cosmo Bogus, on Flickr

 

[Sony Corleone]

I am learning that when I don't feel like digging up new subjects, I can find them in old photos I took carelessly. I can edit them to make them tell stories. It looks like I suddenly have a ton of photos I can salvage. The vast majority of these old shots are JPG's, but that's not the end of the world.

I found this old phone JPG of my dad outside a Tractor Supply store. I believe I took a shot of the plastic chicken because I thought a friend would think it was funny, but I also got my dad, who was then declining and not long for this world.

Before editing, it was just plain bad, but now I have one more useful shot of my late father.

I dislike Adobe's policies, but I am trying Lightroom and Photoshop anyway. I tried Adobe's "Auto" adjustment setting to see what it would do, and I liked the result, so I kept it and juiced up the color a bit. I cropped to make the image less sloppy, although I kind of miss the chicken's feet.

20170913_113852-Lightroom by Cosmo Bogus, on Flickr

 

[Sony Corleone]

The bleach image in particular put me in mind of a horror movie, so it definitely works. The second image doesn't have an obvious subject to me though.

I think the idea in the second image is that the room is the subject, in that it is menacing some poor Kafka character who just wants to take a shower. But it could definitely be done better.

 

[cuthbert]

I love taking photos of the mundane. I feel like I need to get out of the house and go to new places, though… sometimes, I’ll plan something ahead for when the light is good, other times I go out with no plan and see what I get.

Looking at your old pictures is a good exercise- when you can see where you went wrong you can go back and take a better photo.

I live in part of the world - the fens - that are pretty flat. Big beautiful vistas are not easy to come by, but beauty in small things is everywhere, it’s very satisfying I think to make something boring that everybody walks past look interesting.