Thursday, July 29, 2021

Stratford test shot

Angles and reflections
Stratford, ON
July 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


This is a test shot.

Some background: whenever I take pictures with the camera-camera - aka the real camera, my Nikon, the one I shlep around in a giant bag over my shoulder that annoys the daylights out of strangers I bump into at the supermarket - I also tote along my smartphone.

Clarification: my smartphone goes everywhere with me regardless, but when I'm shooting for reals, I like to use its built-in camera as a bit of a backup.

Not that my tiny iPhone with the tiny lens and tiny sensor will outshoot the Nikon. But it's 2021, and any smartphone camera is now generally good enough to capture good enough results that hold their own in a feed.

Good enough. Let's remember those two words.

Having the phone in my pocket has changed my photography. It helps me think through a scene differently, as it lets me take a quick shot or three just to feel out the composition and get my head in the game before I pull out the bigger piece of glass.

I often scan the results to further refine how I'll shoot it with the bigger machine, maybe tweak the settings or otherwise try something different.

Shooting on the phone also gives me more options if I decide to share something directly to social media - because a bizarro roadside photo sesh needs to be shared.

Sometimes, a test shot jumps right out. And it pulls you even more profoundly into the moment where you want to use every photographic tool at your disposal - in your pocket, in your hand, over your shoulder, wherever - to paint the most thorough picture possible of what it feels like to be there.

Which brings me to this one, a hastily composed angled shot of that lovely old concrete building on the edge of Stratford. The one that helped me discover how this building needed to have its story told. At least this time.

Sometimes all it takes is having the right tool in your hand.

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