Sunday, July 6, 2008

Holding the sun

Again, if you've got email, you've probably seen at least some of these already, but I think that they're pretty cool. You can see a lot of pictures of people holding the sun here from Google's index.


This UK newspaper article (the source of the left image) has several images as well.
There are several things about these images I like. First is just the imagination of the photography. It's thinking outside the box. Taking something ordinary, someone in a picture with the sun, and making it something completely unexpected -- not boring.
The second is the irony. In this picture...someone so small, fragile and innocent, taking control of something so massive, explosive and that so many other people in the world depend on for life. Literally holding the world's well being in her hands. You can almost see her toying with the idea of smashing her hands together, extinguishing the light.
When my wife and I got our first digital camera several years ago, it really freed us. We didn't need to be concerned with how many pictures we took and had to pay to get developed hoping that at least a couple would turn out good. Now we work the odds. We take a ton of pictures, at no expense (using rechargeable batteries) and get a lot of great pictures. I try to be a little creative with some of the ones I take, trying different perspectives, shooting up from down low, or shooting something really close that you wouldn't usually notice. I'm no professional by any means, but I have fun with it. I think that the people that took these shots do too.

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