I love depth of field. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I’m drawn to photographs with a shallow depth of field. To me, it’s what separates a picture from art. My quest today (and likely tomorrow!) was to reshoot part of my final assignment for my photography class, for which I chose Depth of Field of for the technique of choice. I visited Hines Park to reshoot a particular shot which wasn’t clear enough the first time around. I took the original shot with my prime lens, a 50mm Nikkor AF 1:1.8, manual focus, something I need to practice.
My classmates chose it for my final and my instructor suggested reshooting it for better focus, which I attempted today.
We’ll see.
I walked around solo today, under a cloudy sky in off and on rain, in between Saturday errands, to hopefully find and gather more shots and get some practice in. Once I left Nankin Mills, I spotted a rusted fire hydrant across the street, and zipped across Hines Drive to park and get a closer look. Stamped in the iron was East Jordan Ironworks, 1958. The peeling yellow paint revealed peeling red paint and as all old things I find, I imagined what times were like then, 15 years before me.
Just behind the fire hydrant was a comfort station, and I proceeded up the hill to see if it was open. Luckily, it was. Before I left, I took a moment to photograph the inside of the building, marveling at the tile walls and floors that made up all these structures throughout Hines Park. The shutter on my camera echoed through the empty building as I tried to capture the light shining in through the frosted glass window onto peeling paint.
The outer bricks of the building were covered in graffiti, scratched into the brick, some dating back over 20 years. It’s not often that I come to this part of the park, and I had no idea the front wall of this brick building was covered in graffiti, etched into the brick. And from the road, you’d never notice it.
My photo class is done in two more weeks, and for the first time in my life, I’m sorry to have a class come to an end. The challenge in the assignments has been a blast, and seeing everyone else’s work every week and style of shooting has been so interesting to say the least.
Sunday we set off to Novi for the Giant Motorcycle Swap and I made a quick turn onto Wayne Rd. north from Venoy when this caught my eye.
R.I.P. Quo Vadis Theatre, 1966 – 2011. Fences have been up since last fall, and today, just a remaining wall of it’s beautiful blue tile remained. Today I walked around the fencing in the blustery wind to capture the remaining pieces of a childhood memory.