Interesting Images

Interesting Images

by William Lulow

Trying to come up with interesting images seems to be a matter of where your head is at and what you happen to be thinking about at any given time. Being in touch with your own moods and feelings is always a good place to start. I’ve written before about “access” as it relates to image-making and the creative process. If you are not tuned in to your own thoughts and feelings, you can’t gain access to the places you need to be to make interesting images. Here’s an example of what I mean: recently, while on vacation in Florida, we had three days of nasty weather. I was feeling the nastiness of almost hurricane-force winds, rain and overcast skies and thought I would try to make an image that conveyed those feelings. These are two that I came up with:

First, you will note that they were shot in MONOCHROME mode! The thought process here was that since I was looking to convey an “unhappy” mood, full color would be inappropriate and Black & White better showed what I was thinking.

Next, the composition became important. The lower image, with just a single umbrella, all folded up with the surf all around it was a great way to show the incongruity of a beach umbrella with water surrounding it in what should be a nice, bright scene. The first image, with lounge chairs pulled way up on the dunes also signals that they weren’t being used as intended. So, all of these elements helped me to say what I felt about the scenes before the camera and the feelings in my mind as well. And, I knew I had the images I was looking for before I even brought them into Photoshop to edit them.