Early Experiment

When I was starting out in my hobby of photography, I was always asking myself what if.

What if I shot from this angle? What if I slowed down my shutter speed and zoomed in with my lens at the same time? What if I... ?

I still like to experiment, and thanks to the digital age, I can do so at far less expense than in the time of 35mm film.

And in the digital age, I can take some of my experimental 35mm images and bring them to what I had originally envisioned. 

One spring day, in 1986, I set out to photograph the tulips near Dow's Lake, but I didn't just want to capture the flowers: I wanted to experiment with exposure.

What if I exposed for the earth under the flowers, rather than the flowers themselves? I imagined that the tulips would be somewhat blown out; that is, overexposed. 

But I also focused on the ground, itself, with the aperture wide open, which gave a very narrow depth of field. Before pressing the shutter release, I imagined an almost Impressionist style of image.

I wasn't off, but in the slide that I created, the colours and tones were dull, the contrast less dramatic than I wanted. It was a decent attempt but I had hoped for more.

Nearly 40 years later, I looked at that slide image again and asked myself, "what if?" What if I digitized that slide and applied some digital photo editing?

Well, what do you think?

I'll never stop asking myself that question, will never stop experimenting.

Happy Friday!