For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been sticking mostly to telephoto lenses. My eye seems naturally inclined to wide-angle, so I’ve been working on developing a telephoto eye. (I also need to work on using “normal” lens lengths.) I also decided to go black and white this week.
Busy with work and the rest of life, most weeks I squeeze in a bit of photography time–at work sometimes. I’ve been thinking about how to photograph my workspace. This is not an easy task, given that I work in offices and an archive. Books. A mess of paper. Boxes and boxes of stuff nicely organized on shelves. (If I’m curating my office spaces, my aesthetic apparently is a messy look.)
I’ve tried a variety of approaches to the archives space, and none really have worked. So this week I went a bit abstract. The first photo is of paperwork, reflected in a window, with shadows and shapes from the other side of the window. Basically, the mess of my desk. The second also is through the window, but reflected, blurred shapes of furniture and shelving.
The next set of photos I took near where my chiropractor is. I was early for an appointment for some “active release therapy” on my back and swung by the dam on the Thornapple River (by Leslie E. Tassell Park at Cascade Road and Thornapple River Drive).
Here’s a couple of wide-angle, context shots of the dam.
And here are some telephoto shots, which visually compress the space. I forgot to bring a neutral density filter, and so I could not do a long exposure and get a smooth, smoky look with the water. I’ll probably go back and do that.
I think that this week’s images are characteristic of my preferred styles. Abstract images that use reflections and mix inside and outside (an older example and a recent one). And, landscapes that combine natural and built environment (my favorite this year).
No Ordinary Light 
