Untitled (In n Out, Corona, CA December 2013) copyright 2014 Douglas Stockdale
Oh where to begin?
Firstly, this is another photograph that may or may not be in my Instant Nomad photobook but IS included in the project, if that makes sense. I have a ton of images I will consider as I edit, but first I need to start with a nice portfolio of photographs. While on assignment in Corona, I frequented this location a number of times and each time I was drawn to photograph a similar composition. Yep, I’m a fan of In n Out burgers; double-double, no onions but add lots of pickles. yum.
As to the meaning of this photograph, that’s your assignment.
Secondarily, the camera and format of the image. The initial “raw” capture is above and one potential 10 x 8 version is below. One thing that I did not fully anticipate when I acquired my Samsung phone is the slightly panoramic images. I like how it photographs. I like what the photograph looks like. I did not realize what a fan of panoramic images I might become.
As to the cropped 10 x 8 below, this is the “distilled” image. Since I frequently (okay, about every time) will crop or change an image, I end up with the final images in a complete range of sizes. One lesson I learned from publishing Ciociaria, the inconsistent image sizes creates havoc for the book designer. Since the designer is going to crop or change the image to suit the book’s format, I might as well make the changes first. As to why 10 x 8 (or 8 x 10)? Short answer is that this size is one of those classic photographic formats, also a classic size that I used for some many years in the darkroom; paper, trays, easel, etc. Similar to how my friend Hiroshi defers to 5 x 5 square, even when infrequently using digital, the resulting image format is a square image. Why? Well why not?? btw, when I am photographing with film in the Hasselblad, I have been composing and keeping the resulting image 5 x 5, which just seems right.
Cheers!
Singular Images 