Shooting for assignment

I've been out shooting for assignment one.  This calls for 8 pairs of photos demonstrating contrast, plus one additional photo demonstrating internal contrast.  A list of 21 contrasts has been provided, such as dark/light, curved/straight, sweet/sour, etc.  There is no restriction on subject, but my aim has been to shoot only one.  It seems too easy to find subjects to fit the contrasting adjectives and end up with a hodgepodge of rather pedestrian, trite images.

At first I thought I would shoot in some abandoned homes I found in a neighborhood not too far from here.  I took some preliminary shots and after reviewing them realized it might be too difficult to find a suitable number of usable images.


Fortunately, my wife and I were one afternoon not shortly thereafter passing by the city's Fruit and Vegetable Market and I thought this might do.  An initial round of shooting resulted in what I thought were some decent images, so I decided to settle on the market.

Even so, trying to produce images that are technically proficient and with a little bit of character has been challenging.  It's easy to take a photo of a lemon and then a watermelon and say, look - sweet and sour.  This seems to me rather cliched, trite, and tired.

My approach has been to walk, look, and shoot what appears to me, without concern for the list of contrasts for which I am supposed to be producing images.  This afternoon, for example, when I noticed the sun coming through the space between the roof and surrounding buildings, I walked around looking for suitably interesting shots where the light was falling, like the one here of the pomegranate.

What I have found difficult is shooting to the adjectives, of starting with the idea and trying to find an image to fit.  I think part of the challenge in this approach is taking the time to simply be where you are, to settle into the environment and really start to see beyond the surface.  I noticed after an hour in the market that I hadn't looked more than a couple of degrees above my line of sight.  I hadn't seen the ceiling at all.

The problem I foresee is completing the assignment with the appropriate number of images.  I think I will have to make another trip still to complete this assignment.  That is not a bad thing.  I learn the place.  I learn what times might produce more interesting images, given the light but also given the human traffic through the market at certain times of day.  And I have started to become a familiar face in the market.  Many of the merchants are starting to talk, to ask questions, to request photos.

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