The morning of Wednesday, March 27, 2019 was the morning I caused myself to go into a spiral of conflict. I Woke up precisely at 6 a.m., and decided to check my sky clarity app. There has been a specific photograph I've been wanting to make for the past month or so, and I haven't had a clear morning (when I'm awake on-time) to make that photo.
The sky was dark, but my app told me it was nearly clear skies until 8 a.m. Perfect. I got dressed and grabbed my tripod. I threw on my coat and waited for the freight train to pass so I could get to my car.
I drove to the location in mind and parked my car in a small lot near Holy Trinity Catholic Church on the north end of Downtown Bloomington. The air was bitter for a late March morning, I set up my tripod, leveling it to ensure a clean panorama.
As the morning light changed before the rising sun broke the horizon behind me, I made four or five variations of this photograph. Including panoramas and straight single-image horizontal photos as failsafes.
By the time I got back to my apartment at about 7 a.m., I started to stitch the panoramas together and process them to my styling. I ended up with two versions that I have been struggling to decide between which I prefer.
As the day went on, I slowly gathered opinions from friends and peers about the photographs. Some having simple “this one” or “that one” answers, and others responding with more insightful readings on which one they prefer and why. Once I was in my class I assistant teach for, I got some input form my professor and she gave me a a final push toward which photo I should use.
I ended up settling on the version with the subtle cloud textures and the light on the inside of the building turned off (that is to say, if that light was inside of the building or not). I printed the photograph at 22” x 7.76” on semimatte paper and instantly fell in love. With both of them. I wound up in the same predicament I was in earlier.
Needless to say, printing the photographs did help a lot. It set in stone that I wanted to print a huge version and submit it to the ISU Student Annual. A massive 15” x 42.5” print is a little ridiculous, but that’s the idea, isn’t it?