Humans in the Environment Photoshoot - Ghosts

 

I have enjoyed the threshold where nature and technology meet for as long as I can remember. Sometimes it is ugly, sometimes it is very beautiful. Perhaps my fascination with this type of photography has to do with simply drawing attention to it—our effect on nature and also, as much as we try to deny or avoid it, we are part of nature and eventually return to it in many ways. Graffiti Pump House is that.

There was something striking, to me, about the angle and composition of Driftwood Cairn. It is difficult to put my finger on what I found so appealing. It has to do with the sculpture in the foreground contrasted by the rusty water tower and boathouses in the background. Also the blue of the sky, yellow and grey buildings, white snow with brown and green patches poking through, greys and tans of sculpture itself, all complimenting and balancing one another. It’s industrial. It’s stark, yet active. It’s human. But above all those things, it is nature. Personally, it evokes feelings of childhood and beaches I grew up combing.

Gem is a photo I have wanted to work into my submissions since my recent trip to Alaska. I just love the way the apple the sunlight glints off apple encased in ice. To me, there is something magical about it. When I took the photo, I was having a lot of fun playing around with things I learned from our text book about focal distance and framing. So, then and now, I find the way different shapes compliment one another in the composition rather appealing. The circles of the apples against the soft brown, vertical lines of the fence in the background, interconnect by the irregular riot of lines in the tree. I suppose, the emotion I was attempting to capture was wonder.