Think of how you used to look at the world as a young child. You examined the world around you from a much closer (and lower) perspective than you do now. This assignment asks you to try to recapture or reproduce that point of view, and maybe make others remember something of their own childhoods.
Your camera lens can photograph as close as a foot and a half. Leave it at that distance and take an entire roll of close-up images. Only photograph at the closest distance your lens is capable of (about 18 inches). Think of:
- bark textures
- trash on the ground
- pipes against a building
- flowers
- arrangements of small groups of objects
- extremely close portraits of your friends
- parts of bodies
- anything else, as long as it is at the minimum distance for your lens
The photos need to visually interesting. What makes an image interesting? Usually this means that it has a public meaning, in addition to the personal meaning you attach to it. This means that strangers will find the image interesting, not just members of your family. Something about it shows them a world they had not thought of before. What you photograph is not nearly as important as how you photograph it.
REMINDERS
Pay close attention to your light meter and to the way you use it. There is no sense going to all the effort of taking a photo if it isn’t going to come out. Your meter takes all the light that enters and averages it to a middle gray tone. Most of the time that gives you the right exposure, but sometimes it doesn’t. To get the most accurate meter readings, avoid using your meter when something really bright is in the photo — such as the sun or white sand at the beach. The bright object or area can throw off the entire reading. Instead, meter something with a tone similar to the tone of your subject: a patch of concrete, your hand, a place on the ground.