From All Angles

The business people with whom I share an office building say that looking back and looking forward is imperative. The artists and writers I spent last week visiting in the U.S. value the practice of looking into people. Architects recommend looking down on objects to further appreciate a design. Why then does the average person spend most of any given day only looking at the world? 

Photography answers the question for me: We need reflection. If photography is about seeing, then reflection is about understanding from different angles. Reflection, as both a mental practice and a photographic technique, allows us to look backward, forward, into, down and, of course, at.

Susan, an HCB photographer, has captured these angles in her two images.

In her side mirror image above, she is looking forward and backward at once. In her image from the skywalk, she is capturing a moment where she looks into, at and down at a female figure. 

For this PhotoPlay prompt

1. Take an image of a reflection (not yourself).

2. Use the aperture (A) function to adjust the amount of light you allow into the image. Most cameras range from 2.8 to 22. Some might be higher or lower. For maximum light, select 2.8. For minimum light, choose 22.

3. Share on your blog whether you looked backward, forward, in, at or down on your subject. Include a note about what aperture setting you used. I will discuss the relationship between aperture and reflection in the feedback post next week.

4. If you do not feel comfortable working in A mode, simply use another mode.

5. Submit your image to my blog by Wednesday, October 13, for a feature in the gallery. 

Photos by Susan Etole. Used with permission.   

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• photoplay

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