Bent, bowed, backlit

One of the most interesting things about photography is how the act of reflecting on, and analyzing, an image can make it stick in your mind in a way that otherwise might not happen. Two years ago I took this image of some backlit river oats seeds while out on a hike with my family, and subsequently used it as the subject of a Weekly Fifty post. In the process of doing so, the image kind of lodged itself in the back of my mind–I don’t think about it every day, but when I happened upon a similar scene (which you can see at the top of this post) the earlier shot from early 2023 immediately resurfaced. I remembered the glowing serrated edges of the leaves, the drooping bows, the blurry brown background, and most of all, the excitement I felt at being able to capture the shot. So when I came across the scene you see in today’s featured photo, this time near Theta Pond on the OSU campus, I thought about how I could take another photo inspired by the original but hopefully improved in a couple of ways.

Even though this shot shares a lot in common with its earlier counterpart, there are several elements that, in my view, demonstrate a bit of personal growth and change. First, the colors are a lot more interesting. Instead of a palette consisting entirely of browns and yellows, the new image is marked by a huge swath of green in the background. It implies nature, life, and vibrance whereas the original felt dull and a bit melancholy. Again, not that the first one was not a good picture, just that the second one is, in my opinion, improved in some important ways.

There’s also a clearer focus on one single subject–the leaf right in the middle of the frame–and other leaves surrounding it for context and depth. This sense of subject is kind of present in the original, but the additional colors (or color, I guess, if you want to put a fine point on it) serve to emphasize the single leaf in the center even more.

Finally, the background has more things going on which help to provide a small but important sense of context. There’s another brown plant on the lower-left, and a bit of sky peeking out in the top-right. It’s subtle, but it matters, and it all helps to make this new image, in my opinion, a fun improvement over the original.

Then again, we all know that photography is highly subjective and it’s entirely possible someone might look at both shots and prefer the first one from 2023. That’s not just OK, it’s a good thing, as it shows that there’s no one single correct answer and just because I might look at these two images one way doesn’t mean you have to also.