Weekly Photograph - Bike Against a Brick Wall
14.11.06 @ 12:08 am
Last week my wife and I went out to take some photos in North Beach. One of the cool things about North Beach is the limitless diversity of what you could see at any given second. Surprises can come at any turn - or you could be caught surprise by an innocuous scene just as easily. Such is the case of this photo.
What I like about this photo is its lack of attempt to surprise. The scene is very basic - a bike chained up to a pole with a brick wall as its backdrop. Nonetheless, there is great beauty in its simplicity. Nothing profound is going to jump out at you after a long period of time observing this image; what you see is what you get. The deep colors of the bike and the brick wall made for beautifully rich greys throughout the image with nice contrast coming from the pole holding the bicycle up and its wheels. When I first saw this image in person, nothing in particularly leapt out at me - still I felt compelled not just to take one photo, but a whole series of photos of this scene. This one ended up being my favorite - for no particular reason.
bicycle, bike, brick wall, broadway, north beach, Photography, rowland weekly
November 14th, 2006 at 12:18 am
$0.00 in Comment Love for July
Hey PJ, I was just thinking. Your photos are quite good, and maybe people would be interested in buying prints. You could use the proceeds from the sales to support a do-good organization.
November 14th, 2006 at 8:49 am
$0.00 in Comment Love for July
I have 3 photos that I want to purchase. Do I get a discount for buying in quantity?
November 14th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
$0.00 in Comment Love for July
I think the photo is very romantic. I get a nostalgic feeling for some unknown reason. It reminds me of a simpler time, a more relaxed environment. I want to believe that the owner of this provincial bicycle is around the corner, enjoying a late lunch with friends and lingering over coffee. Perhaps in a small town in Italy…
November 15th, 2006 at 5:14 am
$0.00 in Comment Love for July
Forgive my lurking on the past few posts, P.J. — I’ve gotta get a handle on that.
What a great pic… you should definitely look into an effective way to have prints made of your photos… if I remember correctly, deviantArt has a ‘print’ account don’t they?
November 15th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
$0.00 in Comment Love for July
This one is simple, elegant and just wonderful. It’s funny how some oridinary things, when captured correctly can become extraordinary. I share Leah’s sentiments of this picture.
Details that I love about this are the indented sections of the wall and the missing bike seat which draw your mind to the fact that this setting, though seemingly peaceful is wrought with some imperfections and need for protection.
Great piece.. I think the choice of b&w really elevated its power.
Oh, and I second the point about selling prints!
November 16th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Thanks so much for the comments guys - I apologize for the lack of correspondence. I would absolutely love to sell my prints - the problem has been how to get the money and how to coordinate printing/shipping. I think I have come up with an idea of how to solve that. See, the printing services rob the actual creator of the print/photo as they take a tremendous amount off the top - making the prints even more expensive as the creator tries to make even a slight profit. DeviantArt’s program is absolutely wretched in terms of payment percentage to the creator.
So if this idea works, I may just starting doing that. I’ll see if I can put something in place in a week or two.