13/365 Lonely

We went to the big city today and that's always cool! I really enjoy the diversity in the downtown and the outer-laying artsy areas. You just never know what or who you'll see, sort of like what I recall Greenwich Village being like, but on a smaller scale.

I saw this sculpture that I had not seen before in one of the parks. A sculpture of a huge chess set and all around were people with their chess boards pulled out--young and old all mixed in together. I would have loved to get an interesting shot of that, but I couldn't find a good place to park and I had little people in tow, so parking far away and hiking back was not an option today.

I was still scouting around for some other interesting street scenes when we stopped at a light. I looked out the window and there was this guy asleep in front of this vacant building. I rolled the window down and got off two shots before the light changed.

Because the sun was so bright where he was, I opted to convert to a harsh black and white. I wanted the scene to be high contrast (whites white, blacks black) to go along with the lonely-in-the-city vibe that I got when I looked at him. I opted to put him in the corner of the frame so that I could juxtapose him with the empty building. Two kinds of lonely--empty building, homeless and alone. Now, I don't know if he's lonely or not, but that's the story I decided to tell with the light!

Lesson: Always remain open when you're scouting for images. You never know when an opportunity will arise, so be ready! Already know what kind of light you're dealing with and set the camera early so that all you will need to do is point and shoot before the moment passes.

Tomorrow: Abstract. I'm really going to try harder to get something interesting!