Project 1 Planning: The power of shape

Project due: 01/10/07

See my Complete Guide to Photography overview to see what these projects are all about.

This first project is about seeing and utilizing shape as a image element. Two photographs are called for: a silhouette and a lit image in which the dominant element is a shape.

I've been thinking about this one for longer than I expected, in part because weather and life aren't cooperating. Yeah, I could set up the lights and just shoot an indoor silhouette, but that seems like cheating. I'm looking to create "good" images, and not just fulfill the letter of the assignment.

I've been thinking a lot about "pre-planning" or "pre-visualizing" the shot, and not just going out and wandering around until I see something to shoot. But I'm starting to wonder if the latter isn't such a bad thing.

I can come up with a lot of ideas and I can see in my head the final results... none of which are easy to carry out because of things like "sunflowers aren't in bloom right now" to "there's never a hawk on the right side of the road on the drive to work when you need one." I'm hoping for the hawk, though. But I figure I'll shoot several silhouettes before I move on... it's something I've never bothered to do before.

The second image is more difficult for me to pre-visualize... it's a very wide-open assignment. Part of the reason I chose to do this series of projects was to narrow my field of choices, but this isn't very narrow yet. I can find something though... buildings seem like an easy out.

So I'm going to try to complete this assignment by this Tuesday. I'm not sure how much time I'll need for these, but I'll have to keep them fairly fast-paced if I'm going to do the whole book in under a year. That's one project about every five days. But working under a deadline is part of the point. So I should have something to show by Wednesday if everything goes according to plan.