Silhouette
Steven M.
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This specific photograph took a lot of dedication and preparation to make it happen. In my head I had the idea of photographing a nice subject with a lot of different details to later make it a silhouette on photoshop. This picture took a lot of time to make because I was looking for the perfect subject. I was walking through my neighborhood when I saw a tree without leafs right besides a Jack in the box. At first I thought nothing of it, but then it came to me. This subject fits all of the criteria that I had in mind. There was one problem though, I needed to find or to wait for the right time to take the photograph. At first I thought that day time would be the best choice but it certainly was not. The picture was too bright. Then I thought “Maybe I could shoot it at night” and that’s what I tried. On my head, for the night picture, I was trying to take a picture of the silhouette of the tree with stars in the background. That unfortunately did not work out as I had it planned in my head. There were no stars thanks to pollution, I of course, had the option to photoshop the stars in, but I did not like that idea. It did not seemed to sit well with my personality because I felt that it would overall alter the subject and that was not my intention. There was only one option left, the sunset. This was a clever idea but it had a major fault. Not every sunset is pretty. For about 2 weeks straight, I went to the Jack in the box and watched the tree as the sun was setting. I remember that my mentor Mr. Nguyen once said that photography is beautiful, but it requires patience. Mr Nguyen said “You have to wait and have trust that what you are hoping for will happen” I did not think much of it, I personally thought that it was the typical quote that you get when you google “quotes related to photography” However, I had a change of heart. As I stared into the sunset, and saw the naked tree for two weeks straight. I managed to understand what he was saying. Photography does indeed require an incredible amount of patience, but most of all, determination. The day that I took the picture was not pretty at all. It was a cloudy day, I was honestly considering going home because there was absolutely no way that a beautiful sunset would appear. However I remembered Mr Nguyen’s quote, I forced myself to believe that something will indeed happen. I personally believe in hard work, not in luck. But this time, and just this time, I thought that I was the luckiest man on earth. There it was, the most beautiful sunset that I had ever seen. The sun was incredibly bright and it created an almost violet tone of color in the sky. I only took one picture of this event and that was honestly all that I needed. The picture was great, it had a great composition and not to mention that the black silhouette contrasting with the violet sky looked amazing. After a few color grading edits on the picture to highlight the violet more. (which it is the reason why it is in this category) It was done, and one more thing, which is what every photographer strives to achieve. I managed to create a photograph that asides from looking appealing to the eye, tells a story.
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I think that expressing my creativity affects me on a good way because I get to socialize with people that potentially can boost my career and overall the quality of my life. I think it does not affect just me but them too because the subjects of my pictures get to be a part of it.
