Today I am going to give this blog a proper, good old kick-start and introduce a section where I take one of my favourite photographs and explain some of the technical detail behind the image, talk about it, what it means to me, and what I feel I could have done better; perhaps you could call it an artist’s critique.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, both good and bad, on these photographs and discussions, so please leave comments and feedback below.  I aim to update this Image of the Week, every week, so keep coming back to check on new content.  You can easily filter for this section using the categories on the right hand-side of the Blog.

So, the first entry in this series is I’m Never Coming Back taken from the Abstract Gallery.  This photograph was shot in Autumn 2010 in Chicago, right behind (South of) the Museum of Science and Industry.  I remember the day as a beautiful clear mild fall day, the leaves were all golden, and the light was that softness you get when the sun is low in the sky, such that the ‘Golden Hour’ stretches to most of the day.  However, for some reason I really did not feel I had my photo ‘mojo’ on that day.  The area behind the museum is quite nondescript, a shame really as there is huge potential for it to be so much more beautiful.  The only thing of real interest to me was the close proximity of gulls, hoping for food.  They had been coming quite close and part of me was glad of the photo opportunity, even though I am not typically inspired by animal photography.  Whilst over by a fence inspecting the bright rust spots, I happened to look up and see the gull flying toward me and I instinctively took a quick shot, with very little disregard for the settings as I had no time for that.  As chance would have it, I had my wide-angle lens on and I managed to pull off a lucky one-time shot. If I could take this photo again, I would definitely hope for a better depth of field. That said, given the impulsive nature of the photograph, I am not sure would that add or not to the overall effect.

This photograph I feel really appeals on a deeper level.  The juxtaposition of an imposing rusty fence, and the apparent freedom of the bird flying away from whatever the fence is containing, gives a sense of escapism from our daily lives.  Perhaps there is an element of spirituality to the image, in that we can can discover and escape from the ‘injuries’ of modern life, and live our dreams.  We don’t need to be bound by these fences that modern life dictates, or that we build for ourselves needlessly.

Technical Details:
Aperture: f/9
Exposure Time: 1/250 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 25mm
Post-process: sharpening, levels, saturation