Today’s post is about one of my favorite pictures. I hope you stick around to finish this post, but I know many will not. I will mention some technical aspects of the photo, but also why it means so much to me.
The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words may or may not be true. Many of my shots speak to me, many do not. The one above did. I’m here to tell you about it.
Technically, this is not an impressive picture. Heck, many of you looking at it probably would argue it is not even on the level of good, but for me, it is special.
The technical aspects of the picture are as follows; the photograph was taken on my Fujifilm X-T3 with a 27mm lens. Aperture was f/5.6, 1/800 sec at ISO 160. Taken on May 2nd, 2021 at 7:00pm at Washington Park Beach in Michigan City, Indiana. I added a bit of grain in camera (will talk about later) and of course shot in black & white.
If you have made it this far, please scroll back up and look at the photo. I am about to describe why this is one of my favorite shots. Part is the experience, part is the shot itself, and part is what I read into it.
Mark and I were on a trip to northern Indiana. We were waiting for the sun to set to get some shots of the sun fading behind a lighthouse. The beach was busy with foot traffic, a few swimmers, and many gulls. Some were flying by, others swimming a few feet offshore, and others standing on the beach.
While there are many variations of gulls, there is not, in fact, an actual “seagull.” This one is actually a herring gull.
I was standing on the shore, listening to the calls of the gulls, chatter of people and waves hitting the shoreline. The breeze was blowing. The 70 degree temperature was cool on my skin. I looked up, and this is what I saw. The clouds provided a fluffy white backdrop against the silhouette of the bird. There was nothing else in my frame.
The silhouette of the bird provides little to no detail other than the shape. The wings are outstretched. The gull’s destination is unknown to me. Many of the gulls I saw traveled in groups. This one was alone, at least at this moment. As a lover of silhouette photography, the lack of details of the main character inspires me and draws me in.
So often photographers and photographs focus on having everything being tack sharp. Nothing out of focus, and really nothing left to the imagination. That is what I love about this shot. No details of the bird (left to the imagination), nothing else in the frame but a cloud, and I added grain to the shot to make it even more soft.
Grain or noise are the little tiny pixels that make the photograph have character and give its texture. Grain is described as the fineness of detail a film or paper can capture. Grain is the opposite of sharp pictures, which are prevalent all over social media.
Grain always reminds me of pictures I took when I shot film. With the technology today, grain can be added in camera or on software. It is not exactly like film or the film look, but close. In my shot, the sky and clouds with the grain added gives me the perspective of texture. A sort of feel in the image, if you will.
The bird flying gave me a sense of freedom. These animals still only have basic instincts that we all know about, and my assumption is he is headed to find food, but I see him as just dancing on the wind up in the clouds.
As a lover of clouds, especially storm clouds, the dark skies on the left and top of the frame fade to white skies in the middle, then fade to none on the right of the picture. These types of clouds always provide depth and drama to photos. I could capture a cluster of clouds in my shot with a gull in the middle of the frame.
I have a sense of calm and peace when I look at this photograph. Part of me is up there flying with that bird in my mind. I like how the bird is flying down toward the bottom left, instead of across or up in the frame. I see him/her on the edge of a storm but still within grasp of calm skies. All symbolic of how I live my life and how photography allows me to float on the winds of my mind between anxiety and calmness.
The other part I love about this photo was it was not planned. I looked up, pointed at my camera, and snapped the photo. No time to think, plan, or expect. A frozen moment in time that I captured.
My photography friends will see the obvious flaws in the shot, and the casual onlooker will probably brush over this as “oh a shot of a seagull”, but for me I read much more into one of my favorite shots. Each shot does not have to be award winning to mean something to someone. Here it was me.
Until next time,
Tim (Kilmer)
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