Yesterday on our way to Bren Bataclan’s studio in Boston’s South End, J and wandered unfamiliar streets, snapping random photos. I often come home from such photo-walks with individual images that don’t tell a particular story: just a picture here and another there. The above photo is a classic example. What kind of story might I tell about three birds–two starlings and a house sparrow–bathing in a parking lot puddle, a photo I shot through a chain-link fence as the afternoon sun slanted toward evening, their shapes silhouetted and reflected among silent ripples?
Oct 11, 2011 at 5:42 am
I really love this photo! Not only story, but texture and light and the pin-sharp capture of a fleeting moment.
Oct 11, 2011 at 8:08 am
Yes, you’ve nicely articulated what I love about this photo, too. I often snap photos that I like, but I can’t quite explain why I like them, which typically makes me hesitant to share them on-blog. I should start sharing more, “just because.”
Oct 11, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Yes – I am loving this photo so much that I’ve just forwarded to my fellow painting class members. Fleeting moment, indeed, more so than a story – no narrative arc maybe, but a sense that you’ve come in just at the bottom of the conflict-resolution slide. Somehow everyone seems to be sitting with what is.
Oct 12, 2011 at 10:03 am
That is a great photo for the reasons mentioned above. Sometimes the “story” isn’t really a narrative, but a mood or feeling — the end result of a good narrative, without all the words!
Oct 12, 2011 at 7:47 pm
I like the mood of the photo. It doesn’t need a narrative with it.