Unexpected Results

Sometimes a small change yields new and unexpected results!  In this case, it was a change in perspective and angle.  The result was definitely interesting!

Most of the early images in the Mirage series of art nudes were done by hanging the metal mirror from a pole.  The sheet metal is vertical, or close to it.  Lately I’ve been playing with the angle by hanging the sheet from a set of arms using clamps so that I can vary the angle of the reflective surface.  In this case, I went completely orthogonal to my original practice and hung the sheet horizontally.  This introduced a couple of unexpected results.  First, the metal bowed downward, which created some interesting effects with the reflection.  Namely, it concentrated the intensity of the reflected light at the point of the curve closest to Mara.  It also resulted in some streaking of the light as the creases in the metal played into the reflection.  Finally, with only a little bit of room in which to work, I put the light just to one side of Mara and allowed it to flow along the floor, creating some interesting patterns.  The light picked up some warm tones from the flooring, but kept cool ones along the edge of the light source.

The final effect is that Mara almost looks to be flying.  She becomes a stretched out streak with energy flowing through and around her.

Lucas James is a fine art photographer based in Manchester, NH.  Anisotropic Images Fine Art Photography.