Date: 14th May 2021
Location: Isle of Wight
Category: Foto Fridays

What draws me to take photos of weird or seemingly ugly things?

Welcome to another in my Foto Fridays posts, where I try to answer this question!

At high tide, these old steel girders are almost unnoticeable and insignificant because they are nearly covered with water and sloshy mud. But, low tide brings a bunch of new photo opportunities. Normally, I take what I call a “record shot” first (I’ll talk more about these in another post). The image below, is the record shot for this series.

The first thing that draws me in, is the contrast of colours – orange rust against green algae.

Then, curiosity kicks in and I explore further. I’ll use this image below to explain how this pans out.

Getting closer and changing my perspective, I notice the fascinating shapes on the girders from the top in a kind of zig-zag pattern (shape and line), which is clear in this line drawing image below.

Then, I see how the metal girder creates a boundary between the water and the land, which in this case is also a contrast, between the pattern of caked mud and the still, dark blue water. There is also contrast between the rough, caked ground and the apparent silkiness of the slimy algae. Basically, loads of contrasts!

Zooming in helps to make the final shot more abstract. Getting rid of clutter around the edges makes a stronger, more compelling image. I try my best to do this in camera, but if I can’t I will crop in post processing.

Making something ugly look appealing

I suppose, I also like to challenge myself to take a photo of something that many would consider “ugly” or “redundant rubbish” and make it onto an interesting image that will make people stop and look – finding the angle and perspective that will add some flow, movement and interest.

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Plus, you may have noticed, I tend to steer away from taking the same type of photos that others do!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this and maybe it has given you some ideas or inspiration, in any way – even if its to say “I’ll never take photos of ugly things”!