Textures

A pattern is emerging: I am obsessing over textures.

I'm not sure when this fixation started, but I caught myself as I had the compulsion to snap some detail while my fiancée tried on a sari. It may have been the contrast of the smooth plastic of the shiny circles with the coarse polyester (?), or perhaps between the polyester and Amy's skin. Whatever it was, my camera finally caught up with my brain, and my new assignment appeared.

I've compiled most of my recent attempts to find texture in the galleries below (only nine images at a time, thanks Ghost). I'm trying to cultiavate a "low shutter count, small edit, minimal review process" philosophy with my photos for this blog - I want to take one photo per image (avoiding spray and pray where possible), only tweak it slightly for colour (i.e. with a preset) and exposure, and present just about everything I capture in a more honest reflection of my efforts. Not everything will be bangers. It's just for experimentation purposes.

I think the beauty of capturing texture is much like appreciating a still life painting. Stopping to take in small details that we normally breeze right by is a borderline celebration of the everyday, and I believe images of textures found on the street, at home, etc. accomplishes that. There is also a satisfaction in capturing a sharp rendering of your subject, and a still texture lends itself to that. As long as the light is bright, and your lens is smudge-free, you almost have no choice but a crisp shot.

Rougher textures have also proven to be more interesting than smooth. This, however, is likely just a byproduct of that desire for clarity. When the light lines up, and everything works out, those crystal clear images resolve even better when the subject has some grit. A smooth surface, meanwhile, may just be another type of texture, but it doesn't automatically resolve as well. Perhaps my next challenge will be to seek out those smooth surfaces and make something of them.

While I was out on lunch, shooting some of the photos below, I was spotted by a colleague who was starting his lunch late. I was embarrassed - here I am, camera in hand, looking at this random dirty mattress, trying to create something. It felt beyond amateur, student-like, pretentious - like I was trying to really say something with this oversized litter.

There's a small piece of me that is worried this is a fake obsession, like I'm looking for something to fixate on for the sake of content. There's another part of me that thinks I'm not even thinking about texture, just detail - or, hell, not even that, just the obvious beauty of light itself. Is looking for fine details falling into the trap of creating images that serve as little more than lens sharpness tests? Will others find joy in the rough surfaces that I seem to seek out? Do these images say anything? What story does leafy concrete tell? Have I just picked this because it's an easy win?

On second thought, who cares? It's just a prompt.

What I'm listening to: "Triple Seven" - Wishy
What I'm reading: "House of Leaves, 2nd Edition" - Mark Z. Danielewski