SUBJECTS YOU DON'T SEE EVERY DAY

When I'm out and about with my camera, I am always on the lookout for those once-in-a-lifetime or rare scenarios or situations. They beg for questions like, "What am I looking at?" "Are you serious?"

Although I do have my favorite subjects to photograph, I love it all. There are great photo opportunities everywhere. If we take the labels off, we can go beyond what our brain tells us our eyes are seeing.  

With that, let me share my first of several examples.

I walked into a coffee shop restroom, in Steamboat, Colorado, before I ordered. The second I walked in, I knew I had to lock the door behind me so I could take my time. Luckily, I had all my camera gear with me, including my tripod. 

I found this out later. A local artist, by the name of Chula, had painted a mural inside the restroom! At first, I thought it was wallpaper. Her theme was that of a rainforest.

As always, the first step was to get my composition right. With a wide-angle lens, I was able to get the key areas of the mural's theme.

I love small, old out-of-the-way country towns. Oftentimes, it's the alleys where I find their hidden gems. That is exactly what I found in an alley in a small town in Arkansas. The remains of an old car seem to be driving out of this building. To enhance the effect, I got low to the ground for this shot.    If you want surprising things, do surprising things. 

 

For years, Denver, Colorado, has hosted its annual Chalk Art Festivals. Artists from all over travel to Denver to see if they can cover street pavements with better chalk art than their competitors. They spend hours on the street painting art that will be washed away, never to be seen again. 

Most of the art is two-dimensional. However, once in a while, a super creative team decides they are going to create a three-dimensional piece. Such was the case one year, when an extremely creative team came up with a Salvador Dalí approach to their piece. They placed a hard plastic tube in the center of their creation. They then painted a severely distorted piece of art on the asphalt around the tube. Even though it was distorted, when you saw it reflected on the tube, it wasn't distorted. Extremely creative! Dalí would have been proud of them.

I was in downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas, intentionally on a rainy day. I love capturing umbrellas of different sizes, shapes, and colors. I especially like the different ways folks hold their umbrellas. 

In an attempt to get my camera out of the rain, I scurried under the large awning of a beautiful historic bathhouse and kept shooting. I was not expecting what came next. Lesson here? Be ready for anything and work fast. Don't hesitate. It's the kind of image that begs questions. What's your question? 

As I drove down a two-lane paved road on my way to Boulder, Colorado, I saw something that made me put on the brakes. I stopped, turned around, parked, and got out to get a better look. I stared at them for minutes, trying to decide on the best composition. I asked myself, what made me stop? What was the message I received? What was the message I wanted to convey? White crosses, forever and ever and ever. I decided on this perspective to see as many crosses as possiblem, without including the buildings in the distance. Converting the image to a B&W made it more powerful; gave it more impact and mystery.  

As I walked along a downtown sidewalk, I saw something inside a bar that caught my eye. I guess you could say a light went on inside me. After I asked permission, I got right under them and aimed my camera upward to get this amazing view of these giant lightbulbs. I decided on f/25 because I was too close to the lightbulbs and I wanted a lot of depth-of-field. 

I have always been enamored of Georgia O'Keeffe. Years ago, I saw her giant painting, "Sky Above Clouds IV" at the Art Institute of Chicago. One day, as I drove from my doctor's appointment, I saw a sky that reminded me of her painting. I couldn't go home without it. 

Some views in life come only with extreme sacrifice. There are 54 mountains in Colorado that are at least 14,000' in elevation. I hiked six of them. One of them was Quandry (sic) Peak, at 14,245.' It was a long, grueling hike to its summit, but, oh, was it worth the sacrifice! In this image, you are looking down at 13,000' and 12,000' mountains. You don't see this every day.

Was it luck, God-sent, or simply a once-in-a-lifetime coincidence? Whatever you call it, I got one of my most unique images. As I photographed Monument Rocks in far western Kansas, an old but nicely restored VW bus drove up behind me as I was shooting. 

I walked up to the vehicle, and the driver rolled down the window. We introduced each other and chatted for a while. He was on a personal mission: to drive from Brooklyn to California and see as much as he could along the way. I politely asked him if he could do me a favor--drive that beauty in front of Monument Rocks so I could photograph it. I instructed him to the exact spot I wanted him to stop. Click. I titled my image, "Brooklyn Meets Kansas." 

I hope you picked up on what it takes to create images of subjects we don't see every day.

First, I need to be on wide alert for the unexpected, the interesting, the bizarre. If I don't see it,       
I need to see with my imagination, not my eyes, which helps me to see something before I see it.
I also do not hesitate to talk to strangers. I think that comes naturally for me. That ability has resulted in some of the best images in my collection. Of course, no one can tell what it took to create any given image by just looking at it. 

 So, keep your eyes wide open, wait for the right timing, find the best perspective, and try your best to get outside your comfort zone. Have fun with it.

Eli Vega

www.elivega.net

vegaphotoart@gmail.com
Eli Vega Photography on FB