Long before I started shooting digital, I would waste film (at least that's what the naysayers who wouldn't pick up their own cameras would say) on some of the more odd sights I came across in a given day.
Closeups of cake icing, dying leaves and couch fabric filled (and still fill, come to think of it) my photo albums. I was on a first name basis with the folks at the local photo lab, and they knew my color temperature preferences better than I did.
I'm still strange like that. I can be in the middle of a conversation when something either catches my eye or pops into my head. I will either make a mental note to go back to it, or I'll stop what I'm doing right there and reach for my camera. It's maddening to my wife and kids, but I think they're used to it by now. At least that's what they lead me to believe. My wife even has her own little head shake combined with a barely-hidden smile. That's my sign to shoot, but shoot fast.
Today's image is a simple one, but it evokes strong memories of a very comforting day spent with our brood. I was drawn to it by the transition of light across its surface. Then my wife did her head-shake.
Your turn: Can you guess what it is?
The answer: I posted this as a comment earlier today, but a few folks seem to have missed it. So I'm going to paste it here as well. Thanks to everyone who took the time to take a guess. I'll be posting more photo mysteries soon.
Wow, you all are amazing guessers!
It is a...
Painted concrete post at the outdoor pool near my aunt and uncle's home in Florida. I noticed it because it the way the setting sun cast a differential light across the curved surface.
It reminded me of the planet's dividing line between night and day, and I tried to get some of that gradient into the picture.
This remains one of my favorite object-type photos from our entire vacation. I've got more, and will post them in the days to come.
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60 comments:
It looks like pressed sand to me, aiming to become a castle ...
Sand?
The cement column of a deck?
looks like a cinder block to me... you know the concrete block things college kids have holding up their plywood shelves.
i always forget to say Michele sent me!
Why would an extreme close up of Paula Abdul's cheek be comforting?
Here via Michele today.
p
Dense sand or some type of painted concrete wall with many imperfections in the concrete. I don't really know.
Here from Michele.
pressed sand or some concrete with fissures?
don't tell me it's coffee grind!
here via Cult of Jef.
That looks like one of those large, rounded concrete pillars that hurt when you run into them. (Not like I've ever done that or anything!)
My guess is sand also.
Michele sent me!
Chocolate ice cream?
Maybe a brick ....
Over from the other Michele's.
Icecream cake or some sort of whipped cream cake.
Could be plaster? Here from Michele's this evening.
Looks like packed sand to me, from a turret made of a sand pail filled with wet sand and dumped atop a big hole that served as the moat?
Michele sent me. I like texture a lot, too.
Sand I think,did you make a sand castle then take an extreme close up.
Michele sent me today.
Sidewalk?
My photo-lab knows me by name. In fact one of them left her job and took up work elsewhere. She saw me there and called out for me...by name.
Now I like to shuffle where I bring the film. They all know me, but none of them realize exactly how photo obessed I am.
Here from Michele's - totally doing the wife head-shake thing. Um...is this like an inkblot test?
I have no clue what it might be..looks like a sandstone wall to me lol
I'm thinking wet sand, too. Interesting photo! Here by way of Michele- which is good because I've been meaning to come by anyway! I see your comments in all the right places...
On second thought, I completely disagree with it being sand..up close it is far too smooth to be sand. ice cream would be my guess.
looks like foam rubber
~michele sent me
hi! i'm here from michele's tonight. i love those types of photos too, i just don't take them like you do!
i think that photo is of a sandcastle.
Nice tecture. i guess my wife isn't the only one who takes these kind of pictures. You can see her work in my gallery
I say painted concrete - ot you messed aropund with the color and made it yellowish.
Darn, I forgot to say Michele sent me this time.
Here via michele for today, but usually just here for myself. =0)
I always try to minimize the amount of post-production I do on my pictures, Judy. I might adjust for lighting and contrast, and may crop to maximize composition.
But invasive techniques like color shifts would not be in keeping with my philosophy of a photographer: namely that the image should reflect what I set out to capture, and it should be an honest reflection of reality.
Stucco on a building??? I am guesing, of course..I always love all your pictures Carmi and am always so taken with the images that interest you..maybe we are related!! (lol)And I too love to see texture and close-ups of things you don't usually look closely at...MORE!!!
And I look forward to touring with you anytime you can make it to L.A.! THAT, would be a great great plesasure, my dear Carmi.
I am going with a dry brick, but I've had all day to think about it and now I am not so sure.
Here from Michele's but I come here often.
LOL, LOL, LOL! This happens to me sooo often that I should know..DON'T COME HERE ON MY OWN...CAUSE, MICHELE WILL SEND ME, SOON ENOUGH!!! Sooooo Funnnnyyy!
I still think it's the side of a building or some other structure of sorts that is either stucco or cement that has been treated/painted.weathered???
Just blog-hopping around! I'm thinking it's a spondge. Let me know how close I am. LOL
Rose DesRochers
Could be stucco?
Back again, via Michele.
You have talent...keep it up
Here from Michele
michele sent me - now I need to do laundry
Yeah, I wandered over here from Michele's and thought htat was sand, too. Or textured wall or something. I'm dying to know the answer.
Hi Carmi, here via Michele today!
At first I thought it looked like some kind of foam, like ones they make big couch /sofa cushions from but I think it looks like a concrete column...
Yes I too used to take photos of strange things with my SLR - like close-ups of chairs and keys and stuff and you'd show them to friends who would look at you strangely. The beauty of digital is that no-one has to see your strange photos of chairs and keys and stuff! LOL!
a close-up of hummus?
Michele sent me....
;)
Concrete wall?
I always have great shots when my camera isnt with me, and when I do take it, nothing cool happens :(
Bono is Brian Peppers!
I can imagine wet, packed beach or lakeshore sand showing a similar look. Maybe a "dirt" walkway or road. I think I see a slight curvature, then I think that's an illusion.
Waitaminute... I recognize this! You went to the moon?! Cool!
I think its hard packed sand.
Michele sent me this time. :-)
This is how unimaginative I am: I just figured it was a concrete wall.
I think it looks like freshly laid cement... Not quite dry.
Michele actually sent me today, but I would have come by anyhow!
You know, thinking again, it also looks like packed brown sugar. Yum, were you making chocolate chip cookies?
Michele...
ok the suspense is killin' me!! when you gonna tell us?
i still think it's sand as in a sandcastle, but it could be a stucco type treatment on a wall or something of that sort.
Happy weekend Carmi! I love that you are not afraid to shoot. I need to learn to just take whatever I feel like. Thats what is especially great about digital.. you don't feel like you are wasting film and are less afraid to take risks and look out of the ordinary. I think I am going to go on a photographic mission this weekend. As for my guess... it looks like foam like in those foam pits at gymnastics?? Michele sort of sent me.
I'm going with sand. Here via Michele today
The ground...packed down by cars riding over it?
Here from michele's tonight.
Hmmm... tough one. It looks like cement/cinderblock, but could also be chalk. Your wall?
I loved your comment:
But invasive techniques like color shifts would not be in keeping with my philosophy of a photographer: namely that the image should reflect what I set out to capture, and it should be an honest reflection of reality.
I find that the more I use film, the less I post-process the pictures. Most of the time, I don't do anything at all...
Is it a graham cracker? :)
Kestrel
Wow, you all are amazing guessers!
It is a...
Painted concrete post at the outdoor pool near my aunt and uncle's home in Florida. I noticed it because it the way the setting sun cast a differential light across the curved surface.
It reminded me of the planet's dividing line between night and day, and I tried to get some of that gradient into the picture.
This remains one of my favorite object-type photos from our entire vacation. I've got more, and will post them in the days to come.
Hey, I was right the first time! Yeah!
I would say part of a sand castle. Whatever it is, I like the shot!
wow! now that's why i like these kinds of photos.
michele sent me!
Michele sent me back , are you ever going to actually tell us the answer ? lol
Looks to me like the wall of a mud hut!
Here via Michele's for the 2nd time!
Cement?
Michele sent me again. :)
My first thought was that it was a wall of some sort. But I like Prego's answer.
Back when I was taking up bachelor of arts in Communications in college, I sigend up for several amateur and professional photography classes which required us to learn the basic of shooting, developing and printing our own photos from film. One of my favorite exercises were to shoot textures and surfaces to catch the lights and darks of an object, and to communicate "feeling" through them. I especially liked shooting extreme close-ups to get people to wonder what it was i was taking a pic of. I can so relate to this activity of yours :-)
kudos on capturing the texture of that surface. :)
hey it does look like sand..
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