Tim Grey's Blog

Have you ever had one of those moments where you have the camera up to your face, your eye focused through the viewfinder, and you’re just not sure what to focus on?

No, I’ve never had that happen to me either.

Well, OK, that’s not true. It happened to me just the other day. I was taking a break from the recording studio, where I was creating some new training videos (more on that soon!). I needed to get some lunch, but more importantly I needed some fresh air. So I headed out, with my camera in hand, of course. There had been some rain earlier in the day, so plenty of puddles could be found nearby.

As the later afternoon light started painting everything in sight with a warm glow, things started looking pretty cool. As often happens (at least for me) in photography, a scene presented itself to me that I wasn’t really looking for. It was a simple puddle in the gutter of a cobbled street, with the reflection of an apartment building illuminated by warm light revealing itself in the puddle.

I responded instantly, bringing the camera to my eye, zooming in on the puddle, and then… I needed to decide whether to focus on the street, with the reflection in the puddle appearing out of focus, or whether to focus on the reflection of the apartment, so the surrounding cobbles would be out of focus.

OK, sure, I could have set things up so that everything was in focus, but that definitely didn’t seem like the right shot.

I first photographed the scene with the reflection of the apartment in clear focus.

I felt like this was the right approach. But I was second-guessing myself. I wondered if perhaps the “opposite” shot was the right shot. So, I figured, why not capture both? With digital any extra frames are “free”, or so we tell ourselves. So I caved in and captured the “other” version of the scene.

Here’s the worst part: After reviewing both, I was still struggling to decide which was my preferred interpretation of the scene. My gut tells me the image with the reflected building in focus is the better image. But there’s something compelling about having the cobbled street in focus and the apartment building out of focus.

I’m still not sure…

What do you think? How would you approach this (or a similar) subject? Share your thoughts by commenting below…

Photographers are, obviously, visual people. As such, I’ve heard many photographers express a visceral fear of losing their sense of vision. I too have expressed this fear on numerous occasions. I recently had an opportunity to face this fear, though fortunately not due to any risk to my own vision. It provided me with a tremendous and meaningful opportunity to both empathize with those who are sightless, and also to ponder what it would be like if photography represented only darkness to me.

The opportunity was via a remarkable exhibit called Dialog in the Dark (www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com) in New York City. Think of it as providing a simulation of life with blindness. All I knew going into this was that I would experience complete darkness, and that a guide who was actually blind would do the leading.

I had first learned of this exhibit when I was in Vienna, Austria, recently. At the time they were booked up for the next few days, and I was heading back home in a couple days, so I wasn’t able to attend. I thought Vienna was the only location that offered this unique exhibit, so I just added it to my to-do list for a future visit to Vienna.

More recently, I learned that there are actually multiple locations for Dialog in the Dark, including New York and Atlanta in the United States. So I made plans to attend the New York exhibit.

Of course, as a photographer I’ve dealt with a pitch-black room, back in the days when I had to load film into rolls, or into development canisters. That was a little disorienting at first, but there wasn’t much to navigate. Once in the room there were just four walls and a counter. Pretty simple.

Upon arriving at the Dialog in the Dark exhibit in New York, I was presented with a blind walking cane, and led into a pitch-black room. I was left at a railing as the guide introduced himself and proceeded to get to know all of us. We were then led through the completely darkened exhibit. No light whatsoever.

We were led through models of a variety of locations, including Central Park, a grocery store, and then a subway ride (it actually moved to simulate the ride!) to Times Square. There we were overwhelmed by the cacophony of sounds, which proved to add to the disorientation. And then we had to cross the street on our own. With very realistic sounds, it was a bit of a frightening experience.

Finally, the entire group settled into a booth at a cafe, and the lights very slowly came on. We all thanked the guide for an incredible experience, and went back to a world of sight.

The experience not only helped me empathize with those who must navigate through the world without the benefit of vision, but also gave me an increased awareness of just how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy the sights around me, and how lucky I am to be able to record those sights through photography.

I encourage all photographers (and indeed everyone) to experience Dialog in the Dark for themselves if the opportunity presents itself. The experience of not seeing might just make you a better photographer.