Photographers often look for pretty landscapes, interesting people, and unusual sights to make a splash with their images. Something that stands out from the normal. This is a good way to have impact with your images. But what about the ordinary? Can’t these things make for impactful photos also? I say yes, and I challenge myself often to find the interesting, curious and beautiful in the ordinary.
Take for example the latest nor’easter that rolled through New England. This was a mega-storm that dropped nearly two feet on Boston. I’ve taken photos of people and scenes after snow storms that are easy to find, but I’ve also been looking for something different that still conveys a message and a story.
When I went out to snow blow my driveway, I stumbled onto gorgeous frost feathers and patterns on our small garage windows. If it wasn’t daytime and I didn’t always look for how light strikes or passes through objects, I never would have seen the frost. The crystals had grown perfectly on the windows, and since I was inside the garage at the time they were beautifully backlit. So, CLICK, I got the frost.
At night I decided to make one last pass over the driveway to get rid of the remaining snow and the pile of slush left at the end of the driveway by the plows. I cleaned everything up, and when I looked up to bring the snow blower away I saw my son having a smoke outside the garage. An ordinary sight. At 12°F, he was bundled up against the cold, hat pulled down low. The light from the street lit his face, and the light from the garage backlit the cigarette smoke. An ordinary subject smoking an ordinary cigarette in extraordinary light. So CLICK, another good photo.
The other day I was heading into work and as I always do, I had my cell phone with me. It takes great photos. I got off the train at the Copley stop and hopped on the escalator. I looked up and saw that the man ahead of me was just about to enter a shaft of light. I got out my phone, and CLICK, grabbed his silhouette.
This image is an ordinary subject in extraordinary light that turned it into something worth looking at.
So what’s the moral of the story? Look for the light. It can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.