Is lack of time an excuse?

Since I lost my job a couple years ago I've had a lot more time on my hands. For the last year I've been volunteering and working a part time job, but that left plenty of time for photography. Funny thing is I lost my motivation or inspiration. I'm not sure which was the cause, but I just stopped taking photos. It frustrated me, but I'd pick up my camera and just have no idea what to shoot. Even dragging my equipment on hikes didn't inspire me. All I got was a backache.

So, it's funny that now that I'm back in school with no time on my hands, and worse yet in the middle of a week that started with an Exam and a quiz on the same day yesterday, another quiz today, and contains 2 Lab Practicals tomorrow -and it's now that I end up having one of those flashes of inspiration that I've been missing. I took a good hour or two out of my studying to play with a concept that occurred to me while on a study break in the backyard as I was playing with my dogs.

I was looking at the leaves that were falling from the Maple tree in my backyard. They are beautiful and they reminded me of a photo that I had submitted to a contest about a month ago. It was taken at least 2 years ago. I'm proud that it's currently in the top ten, but it's just a reminder that I have nothing new in my portfolio. ...anyway, I started looking at the leaves that were face-down on my lawn and how plainly white they looked. How is one side so different than the other? Then a concept occurred to me...

I heard something a long time ago that struck me. Two people who are intent on fighting could hold a quarter up between them and fight for hours about whether it was heads or tails. Both would be right ...from their own perspectives. But we rarely think about how much our perspective adds to the conflicts in our life.

So, there was my concept. The leaf would replace the quarter. Beauty on one side, dull and boring on the other. It mirrors the perspective idea and maybe even expands on it. But, how do you shoot that?

I tried a variety of shots to convey the idea, but simplicity won (as usual, for me anyway) and this was the photo I came up with:

The Importance Of Perspective:


It's easy to think your perspective is the only one, but much can be missed by not fully investigating whatever's at hand.

This shot was accomplished by gathering all the "pretty" leaves from my backyard in a bucket, bringing them inside, and arranging them on a piece of black poster board at the bottom of my light tent, which was on the floor. A lamp was set on the side of the light tent opposite my hand. I then put my camera on a tripod and attached the remote (although the self-timer would work as well), grabbed one of the leaves, held it up and pressed the button!