Tracy Dimaculangan / Hidden Treasure
[photosmash=]
While New York City is known for its impressive skyline and bustling streets, I always felt that Central Park provided a refreshing view of the city’s beauty. In turn, I attempted to highlight nature’s aesthetic power in my collection of photographs, called “Hidden Treasure.” At first, I thought I might try to show how equally appealing the skyscrapers and the trees were. In the photograph below, for example, both the city and nature seem to share the spotlight.
However, I realized that this was not the type of image or idea that I wanted to portray. Instead, I wanted to recreate the feeling that I get when I am in Central Park. I noticed that in this particular park, the vibrant greens of the spring and summer trees and the iridescent leaves of the fall make the view of the city more enchanting. At times, I even feel that nature’s beauty is so overwhelming that it outshines the impressive glistening skyline. In several of my photographs, the large trees and their leaves cover a great deal of the buildings. In this sense, my title, “hidden treasure” refers to the portions and details of the city’s architecture that are not seen in my pictures. At the same time, my collection’s name also refers nature’s presence in the city, which is often overlooked by tourists and even New Yorkers.
Once I had decided on this topic, I immediately encountered a major challenge: trying to capture a good quality image. When I first attempted to take pictures with my relatively old phone camera, I was sorely disappointed with the results. I was under the impression that my vision and ideas would compensate for my outdated camera, but the photos I took were not sharp and came out rather dull. During my second and last attempt, however, I borrowed my sister’s digital camera, which made all the difference. I realized that although the camera itself is not the only ingredient to a successful photograph, it still plays a significant role in producing a desired image.
When I finally began to snap some photographs, I did not limit myself to two or three shots of the same image. In fact, I took some five or six pictures of each scene to try out slightly different angles and experiment with the lighting and zooming. I knew this would provide me with plenty of options to choose from for the project. I did not, however, anticipate another problem to emerge from this favor I thought I was doing for myself.
As I was evaluating all the images I had gathered from my day’s photography adventure, I was overwhelmed with over one hundred images. While it was easy to eliminate certain photographs from my project, I was often torn between two or three very similar, yet distinct images. Admittedly, it was a headache to stare at the same photographs over and over again before I came to a decision, but I think I was better off having different options, rather than just being stuck to one. Although I would have never thought to try out photography, my endeavors to capture different views of nature in Central Park have allowed me to explore a new artistic outlet.
