Today was another busy day, and once again I found myself getting towards the end of it without having made a photograph for the project.
After dinner in Neon on Camden Street, my wife made herself one of their ice creams. It came out gloriously lopsided — far too much soft serve precariously balanced on a fairly inadequate-looking cone. It made me laugh, but it also made me reach for the camera.
We stepped outside just as we were catching the last of the day’s light. I had the X100V with me and, although the photograph itself wasn’t planned, I was a bit more deliberate once I saw the opportunity. I opened the lens right up to f/2 and positioned her hand so that the ice cream sat against the lights and colours of Camden Street.
The wide aperture did most of the work. The street disappeared into soft shapes and warm blobs of light, leaving the slightly ridiculous ice cream as the star of the show.
There’s very little editing here. Partly because I didn’t think it needed much, and partly because I was rushing to get today’s photograph finished and posted.
I actually quite like it. It’s quirky and fun, although perhaps a bit like the ice cream itself: enjoyable, but not particularly serious or fulfilling.
Four days into a 365 project, though, I’m beginning to realise that might be part of the point.
Not every day is going to give me the time to go somewhere specifically to make a photograph. Some days I’m going to have to find one amongst everything else that’s happening. That means keeping my eyes open, recognising an opportunity when it appears and making something of it.
It also makes me think I need a few standby ideas — photographs I can make when the day has disappeared and I haven’t managed anything more intentional.
Day 4, then. An unplanned photograph of an overambitious ice cream on Camden Street.
I’ll take it.