cetan's weblog a man, no plan, a blog, golbanalponnama.

losing the light

In this case, the subject is not about sunsets, but about the changing of the seasons.

As winter retreats, the sun returns. In December and January (and even mostly through February) the sun (in these northern latitudes) stays fairly low in the southern sky. This makes for really quite decent light mid-day as it tends to be warmer (in tone) and produces pleasing shadows. This, of course, is relative to the exceptional light around sunrise and sunset.

But it's a lot better than the bright, directly overhead, sun of mid-day July.

I've been walking an average of 3 miles a day during my lunch hour, usually 3 to 4 days a week. And so I've made it a point to observe the quality of the light over time. Diagnosis: it's getting worse. Today, for example, I walked into the South Loop again, down near Roosevelt Rd and then back through The Loop. Nearly every time I raised the camera to take a picture, I found myself wondering why the light was so harsh, the contrast so high, and the photo so unappealing. Something about seeing the photo through the eye of the camera caused my brain to realize what I was really looking at, instead of what I had constructed in my mind just seconds before.

So, as the temperatures continue to rise and the sun continues its northernly climb, decent photography during lunch will be increasingly more difficult. A challenge to be certain. I'll soon be able to switch back to my Polaroid Holga, and shoot with lower-contrast film, something I've been looking forward to since this fall.