One Shot #2 | Curves and Lines

Yeah, another sunrise-and-fields picture. But we change the clocks this weekend, so from now on it will be dark when I drive to work, so I may as well take advantage while I can.

I saw this scene yesterday morning, and the juxtaposition of the curved tracks and the straight shadows caught my eye. But the light wasn’t quite right yesterday.

I had the Olympus E-PL5 with the outstanding Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 mounted. I also had the kit zoom, but the normal field of view worked will for this scene. With only one shot, I was a little worried about the exposure. I dialed in −2 stops of exposure compensation, to avoid blowing out the rising sun, and that turned out to be just about right. I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I composed with the shadows extending further off the bottom of the frame you see here, but there were some unsightly puddles and potholes in the lower-right corner, so I went with the square crop.

I’m not above adjusting the color balance to reflect the mood I’m trying convey, but in this case there was no need: This is straight-up daylight-balanced, +15 vibrance. It’s the kind of light that’s worth getting out of bed for.

One observation about the project so far: I’m trying to slow down and be more deliberate, but so far my two photos have been taken along the road on my morning commute. Since I’m trying to get to work, and not get hit by any cars in the half-darkness, I haven’t been as attentive as I mean to be. At least I got all my settings right today. (That reminds me: I should probably zero the EV now, before I wreck tomorrow’s shot…)