Journal Entry II

        A graphic style photograph always intimidates me to a considerable degree. At some point, I even developed a moderately strong dislike towards this specific taste in photography. From my month of reflection in an effort to understand myself, I had finally concluded that I may have formed a distaste for topics of which I do not understand.

        Having already told myself to get out of my comfort zone, I had to face my fears of not achieving the minimum standard of finding symmetry and contrast in the world around me. I had loaded up the camera with a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 and headed out to the Esplanade Bridge in the middle of the day to catch the strong sunlight.

       


        Finding lines and geometry in the wild is very intimidating to me, coupled with the fact that I've never really shot with black and white film drove this project home in terms of pushing me out of my comfort zone. It's such a strange thing to get out of the house in the middle of the day (high noon, 1 pm) to photograph something because on the usual I shoot at 3.30 pm at the earliest.

        This project of studying the shapes and direction of lines is very eye-opening to me. Not to say that I've learned all that there is for such a graphic style; rather, it's the opposite. I've got SO MUCH MORE to learn and train the eye to look for such elements and style because they are such a vastly different style than my typical portrait approach. I am pleased with this first attempt, but that is not to say that there will not be a further study specifically for using the black and white film.

Other journal entries

       GEAR
Camera       :
       Minolta SRT101

Lens              :
       — 58mm f1.4
       — 135mm f2.8

Film stock    :
       KODAK Tri-X 400