Getting to know a place (and a new camera)

Although I like the figure-ground relationships in this photograph well enough, I think I will ultimately be able to capture a more satisfying composition once I get to know the location a bit better. Time will tell. In the meantime, I've been enjoying working with a new digital camera I was able to afford by selling off a bunch of gear I had accumulated over the pandemic. One of the properties of the modern digital files that I really like is the huge dynamic range. I've been able to get control of the way highlights roll off in a way that is reminds me a little bit of shooting with film. The other thing is the image stabilization system. The technology has matured to the point where I am astonished by some of the results that are possible. Under the right conditions, I can hand hold shots with a shutter speed of 1 second. That is just crazy to me. And bad news for my tripod :-)

A kind of mid-century pareidolia

We spent an hour or so walking around old Reston the other afternoon. I was idly thinking about how mid-century modern refers to the middle of the previous century, making it a somewhat confusing term anymore, since we are rapidly closing in on the middle of the 21st century. At any rate, the light was relatively flat under cloudy skies, but I knew that kind of illumination would be good for photographing some of the sculptures scattered about the grounds. This piece was tall and skinny, with vaguely human proportions, and had a bit of a curved surface, which made things challenging. I wanted a tight crop to exclude the sky. It occurred to me that this sculpture has been keeping watch over the grounds for longer than many of the current residents have been alive.