Textures

This post actually isn't about me. It's about Tracy. Or, rather, about her photos. Some of my photos I think are pretty original, but Tracy is far better than I at getting (what I consider to be) truly original photos. Perhaps it's because she's not afraid to point the camera at just about anything. Like this picture. Can you guess what it is?

If you said "a horse with a muddy mane" then you're far cooler than I. I like this photo for its texture - that's a recurring theme for the pictures I'm showing here, in fact. It's not entirely sharp, but that's okay, really - it heightens the sense of mystery in what you're looking at.

Here's another one - this one is a little easier:


This is a fence at sunrise with frost on it. I like the way the frost highlights the grain in the wood; the sunrise leaking through the far line of fence is interesting, too.

This one is a little wilder:


It's the rolled lip of a wheelbarrow with frost on it. I like this picture for the depth of field even more than the texture, I think: it's wild the way only a narrow slice of the frost in in focus. What really fascinates me is the way the in-focus parts of the barrow don't line up: the top of the lip is in focus further left than the roll. It makes sense, since that top of the lip is actually further back than the roll, but it's still surprising when you see it.

How about this one:


It's frost on the windshield of the "Mule," a diesel-powered four-wheeler thing with a dump-truck-like bed in the back. You can just make out the word "Mule" through the frost - but only just, because the sunlight striking the frost blew out (saturated the sensor). I like the blown-out frost, though, for some reason.

Given the previous picture, can you place this one:


It's a post supporting the roof of the mule. I like the frost patterns on it - and the subtle play of color as light is scattered at the boundary of frost and air.

Continuing the frost theme:


This is frost on the sill of a window in one of the stalls. For this shot, more than any of these others, I wish she'd had access to a macro lens (I don't have one - it's competing for the "next lens I will buy" spot): the frost is just incredible.

I've often wanted to get a similar picture: sometimes, when there's rain before a frost, you see frozen mud form the most fantastic little structures. Like crystal towers topped with dirt. It's hard to describe and I've never had a camera when I've noticed them. This reminds me of that, for some reason.

Finally:


Frost on the seat of the mule. Again, I really like the depth of field - the narrowness of the in-focus image adds mystery to the whole.