DARK DAYS, BRIGHT RESULTS

By MICHAEL PERKINS

EVEN THOUGH A PHOTOGRAPH IS NOT A LIVING THING PER SE, it can sometimes feel as if it goes through a birth process of sorts, as if, despite our own artistic limits or lack of vision, it actively struggles to make its way into the world. Anyone who has ever pointed a camera has produced images that seem to have willed themselves into existence in spite of us. And if we possess any degree of humility or honesty, we must just stand back and let them come.

In visiting a farmer’s market on a brilliantly sunny Saturday morning several weeks ago as part of a vacation, I realized that, nearby, there was a vintage neon sign that I had wanted to shoot during several past visits to the same town. In this case, it was in front of one of the oldest Dairy Queen locations left standing from the first days of the chain, a sign which had deliberately been preserved by the locals despite the fact that the store’s other graphics were fully up to date. Now, I found myself about ten minutes away from it by car. Easy five minute stop, easy snag on my photo bucket list.

Only if didn’t work out that way.

48mm, f/6.3, ISO 100, 1/100 sec. 

An hour or so into my veggie-hunt, a sudden cloudburst converted the entire sky to blue-black and tore violently through the market, sending vendors and customers alike scrambling for shelter. Jumping, soaked, into my car, I suddenly remembered the sign, with the formal photographer inside my head saying, “the conditions aren’t really right anymore…so…” Fortunately, I decided to invest a few minutes to see for myself.

In deference to the weather, the sign, which typically would not be lit at all at midmorning, had been turned on to make a kind of pale orange beacon under the gruesome skies. The tinted windshield of my rental car plus an aperture of f/6.3 rendered the rainy scene even a few shades deeper, but, to my surprise, instead of spoiling my shot, it merely repurposed it. The gloom created a contrast between the classically cheery message of, well, ice cream, and the temporary gauntlet folks would have to run to get some. If I had gotten my way, i.e., shot the sign as I originally envisioned, the result would have been about 200% less interesting. As ooky-spooky and mystical as it sounds, the picture knew better than I did how it should look. Of course, I could go back, sometime in the future, and shoot the sign again under ideal conditions.

But, nah. Think I’m good…..