Storytellers Blog Circle July 2017

This is my second post as part of the Storytellers Blog Circle with other artists working for  Offset (you can see the previous one here). What an honour to be part of this group! Yet again, I hope you will find this post and others in the circle very insightful. After reading my story, please check out Andrea Moffatt’s photograph and post – she is an amazing photographer of Little Story Studio.

• The MOMENT and why I chose it

As part of a science symposium in a nearby college, a moon replica was opened to the public for a couple of days. How cool! When you are a mum, you might want to take your kids there to see the moon. When you are a photographer mum, you MUST take the kids there not to miss this photo opportunity 🙂

I didn’t know what to expect and what the moon replica would look like. The fact that it was illuminated in a dark room and that it was suspended over a floor, added so much more magic to this moment. With the children standing and looking at it, it conveys a story beyond simply a brief lesson in science. It immediately brings the world of magic, wonder and dreams to mind. My children (all children) have their whole life ahead of them and they might one day be able to actually really see the moon. Or more. Or something that will be of a similar amazing experience. I love this about childhood.

• decisions about COMPOSITION and LIGHT

I don’t have much to say about the light other than deciding on exposure. I could have exposed for the moon only and with the help of post-processing, I could have the whole room, apart from the moon, in complete darkness with the children’s silhouettes, but I guess, far-from-reality creative photography is not my style.

The spherical shape of the moon with the reflection on the floor just called for central composition but not perfectly so, to also include my children and the reflection as part of the story.

• SETTINGS and POST PROCESSING

In this very low light setting my camera settings were ISO 6400, f2.8, 1/160. The f 2.8 was the widest I could open with the wide lens I had to take to be able to capture the whole scene, and 1/160 was the slowest shutter speed I was able to set with a handheld camera (but a very static scene, the kids were just standing there for a while) and this left me with a 6400 ISO setting to ensure I don’t underexpose and end up with a poor quality image.

I decided to leave it in colour because I just love the blue light of the moon and the image is monochromatic naturally. Other than a basic edit in LR, I darkened the sides of the photo with a graduated filter tool.

Please, keep scrolling through to other photographers, first to Andrea.