As a freshman college student in my new dorms and new school environment, I have been busy going to class, attempting to meet new people in the dorms and of course, spending time doing my work. Since my family lives in Manhattan too, I have gone home once a week to have dinner with them and maybe even spend a night there. It wasn’t until this upcoming long weekend that I realized I haven’t gotten the chance to just slow down and relax and give time for myself.
On Friday, October 11, 2013, since I was really sick with a terrible cold (after having a fever two nights ago), I packed my stuff to stay home for the weekend just so I could recuperate before school started again. After being home for a few hours, I went out for some fresh air and decided to go for a walk across the Williamsburg Bridge since it was nice out.
It was a nice time alone. During the walk, I stopped when I was above the water, in between the two boroughs. I stood there for some time; maybe ten minutes, twenty minutes, I’m not too sure myself. I looked at the buildings to the front and back of me, to the people walking past me, the train that pulled by and the occupied people on the inside of the dirty subway windows. I looked at the structure of the bridge, the writings on the floor and the repeated graffiti on the metal frames of the bridge. I took this picture to capture all the things I saw during the time I stopped on the bridge – if I hadn’t stopped, I probably would’ve never taken the time to notice or observe any of these things around me. I feel like this simple picture captures the beauty of the simple things in our daily lives.
As I took this picture, I used the Rule of Thirds to focus the graffiti art in the upper third area of the photo. From this angle, as taught by the Positioning reading, the people are seen to be both walking away from the camera and walking towards it at the same time. We are able to se the repeating graffiti along a few metal frames, and you can see a glimpse of the train that is going by beneath us. I chose to use a black-and-white coloring for the photo because it highlights the simplistic beauty of the art on the bridge and of the objects in the image.
-Winnie Yu
