It’s a relationship picture without people. It’s a bridge between two spirits who have left the scene. It’s simple and it’s bold and it tells a story.
Learning to recognize the details that tell stories when you are out there in the real world is an acquired skill. It’s actually one of the great benefits of being a photographer. It changes the way you see everything. We are surrounded with symbols and objects that are begging for us to point our cameras in their direction.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
For whatever reason, Teddy has decided to mismatch his socks. There’s practically no way you can keep detail photographs simple enough. I did my very best to reduce it to the basic elements. I tried to find an appropriately bold color for the background to accent the shoes and socks. Notice there are no other clothes in the photograph. Skin, socks, shoes, grass, concrete— I couldn’t find anything else to eliminate. If I could have I would have.
PHOTOGRAPH THE FACE
photo by Nikki Wagner
The human body is a never-ending source of wonderful detail shots and what could be more wonderful than a smile. If you photograph someone’s entire face it’s a portrait. If you get in close at the appropriate moment it’s a detail of pure joy.
PHOTOGRAPH THE HOLIDAY DETAILS
photo by Laura Carignan
Holidays are always loaded with symbolic details. The elegant curved line of a pumpkin lid is iconic. And we don’t need to see Harry Potter’s face to know that he has worked his magic on this special night. Notice the nice touch of the glasses. Even I recognized them.
SURPRISE YOUR VIEWER
photo by Laura Carignan
There’s almost always a story behind details that seem out of context. Pink shoelaces in the rough-and-tumble sport of hockey? The very best detail shots seem obvious when someone else shoots them, but if you happen to be there you need to make a creative leap to realize that you can zoom in close and make a comment about the person wearing the skates.
ACKNOWLEDGE THE EFFORT
Photographing details is a great way to say “I noticed”. The grandchildren made nametags and drew a picture on every one of them symbolic of the diner. That’s a palette of paints and an easel next to grandma’s name. She loves to watercolor. A photographic close-up of anything anyone has made for you is a wonderful way to say thank you.
HOBBIES ARE MEMORY-MAKERS
Hobbies are a never ending source of Portraits Without the Person possibilities. Tools and toys say so much about who we are regardless of our age. Details of baseball, knitting and Legos all say something about my complicated and wonderful boy, Alexander.
SHOW THE JUXTAPOSITIONS
Keep your eyes open for unexpected juxtapositions. It was pure coincidence that a live goldfish happen to be swimming over the puzzle of the ocean floor. When you photograph things that “don’t belong together” you often bring the element of surprise to your photographs.
THERE IS ART IN THE DETAIL
The history of photographic art is full of detail shots. Staples on a telephone pole or a close-up of an art installation in a Philadelphia public space both offer possibilities of texture and abstraction. I often think of these kinds of photographs as sketches; they keep your photographic vision energized. At the very least, they are always an exercise in composition.
YOU’LL APPRECIATE THE STORY … ONE DAY
We kept wondering where the apples were going. Finally, we found them tucked away in the back of the refrigerator; a well-intentioned Teddy had been trained not to waste food. The result: a public protest by mom and a photograph by a dad who found a little storytelling slice of what it’s like to live with a six-year-old. A little disgusting, yes, but a memory for sure.
