Door in Woods
Mar, 2013Views
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Outstanding Creativity
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Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Peer Award
Exceptional Contrast
Jaw Dropping
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in woods surrounding my home in Western, MA.Time
I took shots of this set up multiple times in one day. In the end the shoot that happened at 3pm had that afternoon streaming light effect that created the perfect mood for the final image.Lighting
I knew where I wanted the shoot to take place and had a general lighting look I wanted, but being in the woods I had no idea if I would get what I wanted. The timing had to be perfect to get the exact angle from the light and to have the door in the exact spot to catch it. There was a lot of minor shifting to get to the final image. Thankfully I was open to seeing what the light would do and had access to the location over the course of many hours to see how the light shifted.Equipment
For this shot I used a tripod and Canon T2i with a 18-55mm lens. No other equipment was necessary.Inspiration
The door had been laying in my front yard for over a week and every time I drove by it I couldn't stop thinking that it would make a great prop. I felt a connection to the door and wanted to use it as a way to represent potential, but to me it also felt important to keep it connected to the land it was currently on. The door had come off my grandparents house and the land I live on had been theirs. As a child I spent countless days in those woods playing and pretending they were some magical world. So that's what I set out to capture when I took the door to an old play fort that was on the property.Editing
The only post-processing this image had was to shift it to grayscale and then a little tweeking to the contrast to get it just right and how I had seen it while in the woods.In my camera bag
At the time I shot this my normal equipment consisted of a Canon T2i and a 18-55mm lens. It was what I started out with and I loved the familiar weight of it and the worn handle that had endured countless abuses from a young photographer. These days I carry a Canon 6D with my 24-70mm lens. It hasn't quite worn in the same way yet but it's still got the similar feel to my original camera. I do most of my away from studio shooting with little planning and like to pack lite to keep things simple and more manageable. Usually take just my camera, lens hood, and an extra battery.Feedback
Trees can be extremely helpful and versatile, which helps make a shoot more exciting to see what you can get from them. For something like this I would say the most important part is having someone to help you. When you are taking props into the woods you need to be able to transport it and maneuver it easily making a second pair of hands priceless it that point. Scoping out a location and paying attention to lighting over the course of many hours gave my a much better timeline for how long I had of working time while I was on spot. I have taken the door other places and not had that luxury and while dealing with a heavy prop it made things much more complicated. So being flexible also became a huge part of the shoot for this one.
