Figure Ground Assignment 1            February 11th 2018

It would be nice if all our photos were brilliantly planned and executed. But sometimes technical problems appear or coffee gets spilled on a white shirt or in the case of this night, a novel idea turns out to be lacking. You see while inside the library I fixated on a novel idea to the exclusion of all else. But as novel as it was, it simply didn’t demonstrate figure ground. So in the end, those photos had to be discarded.

Alan Busch – 001

Outside and unhampered by undergarments, the world teamed with figures standing out against numerous backgrounds. The first to attract my eye was this crystal touched leaf and its shadow fluttering back and forth in the wind. I needed to kneel in order to acquire this best point of view. From there, the branches and shadows created triangles of movement throughout the framing of the photo.

To capture it, a 1/100th of a second shutter speed was necessary to still the vibration on the leaf in the wind. An aperture of 2.8 was used to narrow the depth of field so the leaf hovered above the background. Which subsequently required an ISO of a 1000 to get the proper exposure. The Sigma lens was set to 53 mm to obtain this in-camera cropping.

Alan Busch – 002

Not far from the leaf, the steel ribs of a bench protruded from the snow. I found its skeletal shape intriguing as I stalked it with my camera. I finally settled on this ground level point of view where I could see inside its rib-cage. Also from there, the higher metal arm loomed large against the industrial feel of the building behind. This photo has triangles created by the receding perspectives of both the building and the extended arm. The picture has engaging color contrasts between the blue lights that catch the eye and its opposing color of yellow and of course the black against the white.

Here the most important setting was the aperture of 2.8, which focused the view narrowly on the ribs and subsequently blurred the foreground snow and building behind.  1/60th of a second was used to combat any handheld shaking. Which again left an ISO of 1000 to obtain the needed exposure. The lens was set at a wide angle of 24 mm to obtain this in-camera cropping shot.

Alan Busch 003

While walking along a residential street west of the school, more metalwork rose out of the mountainous snow like buildings overtaken by a desert. The best vantage point for seeing the contrasting black metal on white was obtained by squatting against and slightly in the mound of snow opposite. It gave this narrowing perspective of the iron climbing up and disappearing into the snow. There is also a few triangles here created by the slope of the snow and most easily seen in shadow that lays on it.

A slightly higher depth of field of 4 was used at a greater distance to bring as much as possible into focus of this high contrast black on white but dimly lit scene. Due to the awkward position of shooting and the dimness of available light, an f stop of 1/60th of second and an ISO of 2000 was used to control hand shake and get the best exposure. This in-camera cropping was created by the lens being set to 40 mm.