day fifteen : ocean city, MD

For the past couple of months I’ve been using my $12 plastic medium format camera as often as possible to take advantage of the summer sun and really try to get some images worth keeping. While I love the colors it captures it’s been a struggle to get enough light (or stand still enough) for clear images. It may not be the most distinguished of cameras, but my fond affections for it keep me coming back to it. Most recently on a trip to Ocean City, MD with some friends I snatched a couple of images worth posting.

My friends were definately a little confused when i pulled out the brick-sized plastic camera instead of the sleek digital and started running around taking photos, but were good sports to let me snap them while roasting (I on the other hand remain as pale as a ghost).

I’ve been trying to develop a type of style – or at least a concept on which to base some of my images. When I start designing a building, I have a program and a general idea about how I want to create the different spaces to pull it all together. When I lay out a painting I start with the idea and try to develop a subject to represent that idea as simply as possible. I think that if I want my images to have the same kind of validity I regard my other work with, it too should be grounded in some manner. Like with other mediums, I want to be able to express whatever it is I’m shooting in the simplest terms possible. There shouldn’t be any distraction from the subject and the image should include the least amount of visual clutter to express the subject.

For example – I like how in images 2 3 & 4 there’s no one looking in the direction of the camera. In 2 and 4 everyone’s back is facing the viewer. When faces appear in images they tend to steal the spotlight. Faces are a subject all their own and in a setting like this, where the atmosphere and landscape are the intended subjects, they begin to distract the viewer from the rest of the image. With their backs to the camera they’re just people – just a human addition to the overarching subject. People absolutely belong in the images, but no more than the colorful umbrellas, textured sand and puffy white clouds.

There’s still a ways to go before any pure styles get nailed down, but it’s worth a little thought.