More work from our recent Dakota trip. There’s something about images that have a little mystery to them that can kind of do it for me. I mean, you don’t really know a lot about this place. What’s on the table? Where is this place? Where do those stairs lead? What’s with the light shining through? More questions than answers perhaps, but does that make for good images?
Sometimes, I feel like I want to get all mysterious on you all the time. Like, I never again want to take a single shot which lays it all out bold. Prefer to hide in plain sight and leave a little off the table for a change. But then, too much mystery, why it leaves people scratching their heads, doesn’t it?
I guess maybe the best is to leave a couple of open questions on the table. Not put it all out there, but too don’t leave everybody guessing everything all at once. Striking a balance is usually the way to go, even if we often find it hard to do just that.
Do your images ask questions? Do they lay it all out there for the viewer? Do you wish you could add some questions or maybe take some off the table? It’s a curious circumstance that, but maybe good to pose these questions as we go out into the world shooting, no?
As for the “real” answers, why, I almost don’t want to tell you, but here goes. (Spoiler alert!) This was taken in a church basement. For some reason, I don’t know why, it reminds me a bit of that old joke, “when you die in an elevator, be sure to push the UP button!” This actually is a church basement and, yes, somebody left the door cracked. That is real light coming in, nothing fake about this one. There were other photographers wandering in and out as I was shooting in this little hallway. Not sure what was left on the table, but it’s a really old church, been abandoned for a while now, so not surprised something was left. The basement itself had a big kitchen in it (more to come on that later.) This was the hallway, leading from said kitchen to the outside world. Yes, it was a bright sunny day out there, if not a bit cold. So now you know. Shot with the Canon 5dS and the walkabout zoom lens, on a tripod, stopped down a bit but not too much because I like to do that sometimes.
Until next time…
