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22 September 2020

This old chair has been in the back yard for a long time. It was part of a set that ostensively needed no maintenance. But it didn't quite turn out that way.

Coming Apart. Nikon D200 with 50mm f1.4 Nikkor at f2.8, 1/1500 second and ISO 100. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.

As one piece of the set fell apart, we saved the parts to repair the next one to disintegrate, extending the life of one of the benches and this one chair.

Alas (as they say in epic poems about unlikely heroes valiantly taking on impossible quests), the inevitable day arrived and the last of the set were parked along the side of the house as decorative pieces.

In that epic poem, this would be the part of the story where the hero seems doomed.

We thought a close-up of the gap between the side of the chair and the seat was evocative of the times. So we considered how to line up the shot.

We didn't want to shoot straight down because it would have looked upside down. And shooting from either side was out because it would have obscured the separation that was the point of the shot.

But bending down for a closer look lets you see the screw has not pulled loose from its nut. Instead, the wood of the seat has released the blue nut.

It's almost a monochrome image in the overcast light except for that screw and blue nut. They seem to be the point. Still strong, still connected. But unmoored.

The shallow depth of field at f2.8 focuses your attention on that peculiarity rather than the grain of the wood or the structure itself.

In editing we didn't do much more than apply our usual preset for our old cameras but we did add a vignette to reinforce that focus.

In that epic poem, this would be the part of the story where the hero seems doomed.

A single photograph can't hint like the pages of a book still unread in your right hand that there's more to the story. You have to have faith.

Who knows, with a little two-ton epoxy, there might be life left in the old chair yet.


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