Weekly Photograph - Spinning Sphere
14.08.06 @ 11:56 am
This particular shot had been in my head months before it was actually taken. I had been fascinated with a 76 station's spinning logo on California and Arguello for quite some time. I always thought it would be great to take a shot of it at night when it was both spinning and lit up. I eventually got out there to shoot it - I took about six shots at different exposure times. This photo was exposed for roughly 30 seconds at f/8.
One of the things I find magical about photography is that you never truly know how a photo is going to turn out until you see the end result. I had a completely different image in my head of how these photos would look. Honestly, I feel they turned out better that I imagined. What a nice surprise.
arguello, california, film, long exposure, night photography, nikkormat ft2, photograph, Photography, san francisco weekly
August 14th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
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Look at that bright shiny orb! Personally, I like it a lot more than the real 76 ball. Good job on the experimentation there.
August 14th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Thanks a bunch. This is actually one of my all-time favorites shots I have taken. I think the history behind the shot adds to the how much I enjoy it.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:14 am
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Completely awesome, P.J. Did you take that with your Rebel? I really need to get out and take more shots — this is total inspiration.
August 15th, 2006 at 8:16 am
I actually took that with my Nikkormat FT2 using Fuji Velvia 100. I have no doubt you could get very similar results with the Canon Digital Rebel. Our Nikkor lenses with Velvia film, in my opinion, gets better color and contrast than our digital camera.
Still, get out there and start shooting!
August 15th, 2006 at 9:17 am
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I don’t know why…but the more i look at this image…it reminds me of the circus for some odd reason. I can’t put my finger on the reason. Maybe the colors? (By no means is this supposed to be negative.)
August 15th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
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We don’t get 76 in the UK, so the only other time I’ve seen the logo has been on movies such as “The Postman.” I remember thinking at the time that it looked very American, and I had a screen capture of it for quite a while as Desktop Wallpaper.
I wonder how different the image looks to someone who has grown up with the logo, and has not built associations with it. Nice image. It would be nice to view the others in the set.
August 15th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Thanks for the comments guys. I’ll most likely be putting the rest of the series on my Flickr account after I get all the slides scanned in and cleaned.
Stay tuned.
August 16th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
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Lovely image PJ, however oddly enough it took about 5 seconds of staring before my eyes fully figured out what it was I was looking at! All adds to the flavour I guess
August 16th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Thanks Steve - that’s actually quite encouraging as I really enjoy taking mundane objects and capturing them in a way that asks for a second glance. I by no means feel as if I am where I’d like to be yet, but it’s nice to hear things like that.
August 16th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
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Man, just goes to proove wha you see might not be what it is always look twice. I would edit out the roof part though =0
John
August 16th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
Yeah, I was considering doing that at first. I refrained from it however because I really am interested in maintaining the integrity of the original shot. From the angles I had to shoot this photo, the angle you see was the clearest available. Also, I find it to actually add to the scene as there is this seemingly unrelated oddity severely cropped on the site of the shot. I feel like it gives the photo a little more mystery.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:54 am
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Just goes to show how creative you can be when you look around at the most unlikely objects with camera in hand! Good shot dude.