It looks like she’s jumping into the water. It’s a very dramatic picture, and I had no intention of making it that way. It feels cinematic, narrative, haunting? I don’t particularly like it. It feels contrived, even though I know for a certainty, it is not. My father and brother and I were chatting, and Abby was bored, so she walked over to the water when I took this picture.
This picture is far better. It was at that sweet spot when Abby was tired of having her picture taken, which she still is, but she hadn’t quite given into it as a simple fact of her life.
I think the picture taking was still somewhat novel in the northerly picture, in this one we’re months in.
What’s the relationship between novelty and contrivance, I wonder.
When something is really novel, you’re exploring all the ways to do it, you’re learning. In that mode everything feels considered, thought out, planned.
But when something is rote, it can be spontaneous in a way it couldn’t when you’re still futzing with exposure, or worrying that maybe her necklace will be more in focus than her eyes.
I think the picture taking was still somewhat novel in the northerly picture, in this one we’re months in.
What’s the relationship between novelty and contrivance, I wonder.
When something is really novel, you’re exploring all the ways to do it, you’re learning. In that mode everything feels considered, thought out, planned.
But when something is rote, it can be spontaneous in a way it couldn’t when you’re still futzing with exposure, or worrying that maybe her necklace will be more in focus than her eyes.