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I like to photograph a wide variety of subjects. If you have been a long-term reader of this blog, then you know I enjoy photographing nature, wildlife, landscapes and travel. Those are the kinds of images I mostly post. However, I also enjoy photographing other subject matter based upon themes. One of those themes is finding and making photographs "just for the color." I do enjoy going out and looking for color; contrasting colors, complementary colors, garish colors, subtle colors, saturated color, unusual colors, colors on things that should be that color! I find looking for color a challenge as we mostly ignore it when we go about our daily routines. Also, it is a nice change from my normal photographic hunts.
When out with my camera, I may choose to look for things that are only one color, such as red. I once made a business trip to the Hawaiian Islands for a week, took an APS-C camera and an 18-200mm zoom lens, but spent my week only photographing things with the color red. Don't accuse me of being wasteful of wonderful photo opportunities by not photographing all of the beauty and unusual compositions that seem to be everywhere in Hawaii. I was going to Hawaii for business two to three times a year and I already had made thousands of images across all of the major islands. For this particular trip, I just wanted to concentrate on something different. I picked red.
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| Store window at night. From the "Red" trip to Hawaii. |
If I want to photograph, "just for the color," I find I have to put myself in that mindset and block looking for and seeing other compositions that are of a more traditional nature. If I don't, I find myself automatically looking for old infrastructure, abandoned buildings, birds, wildlife, urban landscapes and the like and forgetting to look just for things that I would have no particular reason to photograph—except for their colors.
Besides photographing for color, I like to lurk around old cemeteries to look at the culturally rich and unique headstones and monuments from decades and centuries ago. They are a window back in time to better understand how people lived and what they valued in those days. I enjoy out in the wetlands looking for interesting subjects "where the land meets the water." There are others as well.
I plan on posting some of these, I'll call them, 'project images' in the future. They are a nice diversion from my traditional work and, who knows, maybe something about them will inspire you to try different types of photography than your usual fare.
Here are a few more images I made "just for the color."
More to come...
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Dennis, are you trying to blow out our retinas? LOL It's fun sometimes to ignore the obvious and focus on details or specific goals.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of a seminar I went to. Franz Lanting: "We are attracted to bright colors because to our ape ancestors bright colors meant fruit and hence, food and survival."
Make of that what you will.
Jim, interesting theory by Lanting. I suspect he ‘may’ know what he is talking about when it comes to photography! Lol Thanks for your comment.
DeleteInteresting post. I also like to find pictures that emphasize color, but I never thought of setting out only to look for color, let alone a single color! DUH...
ReplyDeleteYou just gave me another reason to head out with my camera. Thanks.
Bob, I think you may be surprised if you start actively looking for color, especially bright, contrasting, saturated colors sometimes better when they don’t belong together! I’ll be interested to hear if you followed up and what you were able to do with a color outing. Should be interesting.
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