Beauty in Simplicity

Something I've been exploring the last few months is the nebulous space between people photography and still life. The minimalism of still life, but with the human element of portraiture. That interaction between living subject and still subject has been fascinating to me lately. It is less about either individually and more about how we power this device and how that device is useful to us. Symbiosis.

I had made so many photos over this spring break trip. Lots of photos of Steph, the kids, our friends, and our dogs. But I wanted to exercise my artistic side a bit. And I really wanted to continue my study of combining human elements with still life.

So when we visited one of our favorite places at Cape Coral, Sun Splash Family Waterpark, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Two vintage cameras and a shot glass arranged on a wooden table with a yellow bowl of berries and flowers in the background.

Lifelessness

I loaded a fresh roll of UltraMax into my Pentax MX just before we left the house. I had mounted the FA 43mm f1.9 and called it a day. This was the only time during this trip that I had limited myself to just one camera and lens. But in limitation is where challenge is and that is where I believe I thrive.

I wanted to really treat this as an experiment. So I was very intentional with this roll. I started out by shooting only still life. No human subjects were present in the first few frames. I wanted to slowly ease into the human interactions with their environments until eventually the people were the subjects of the exposures. So I attempted to waste no frames. I did end up with two or three shots that I had to reattempt due to something like a person walking in frame or some other unforeseen impact, but I was very happy with the outcome of this experiment.

Family and dog relaxing at the edge of a swimming pool on a sunny summer day.

I approach this sort of still life and architectural photography in the same way that a cinematographer would: this is a scene that is waiting for the human subject to enter the frame. So I was looking for settings in which I WANTED the human element to come in. Like the ticket booth pictured first. I wanted the line of people to be there. I wanted to see that hustle of patrons clamoring to get in (that craziness had just passed by us as I was on my way back to the car for a lunchbox of snacks for the kids).

For this second shot, I wanted to see the lifeguards rushing in to grab their floatation devices or poking their heads out of a window. The lifelessness was enthralling to me. Like an ill omen. Where had everyone disappeared to? This placed looked like so much fun, so why was it not in frame (rest assured there was lots of fun happening around me)?

A black and white beach scene with tall palm trees and small structures on a sunny day in a tropical setting.

Wooden picnic tables arranged under blue shade sails with palm trees and lush greenery in the background.

A stainless steel pool handrail next to clear blue water with 'NO DIVING' text visible on the pool edge.

I kept this same philosophy going for a while. I found areas and objects in which we'd be accustomed to seeing people doing people things and yet here was this scene without a single living element.

This was definitely a bit of a challenge. This park was pretty packed with people. Timing some of these shots was beyond challenging and I am surprised that I had to retake less than a handful of these exposures. As I mentioned, though, I thrive in challenge. It invigorates me and gives me renewed purpose in what I'm doing.

So I stuck it out and when I found a bit of time I picked up my camera again and made an exposure. After all, this was still a vacation and I wanted to enjoy the time with Steph and the kids.

A child in black sits on a sandy beach using a shovel near a white bucket on a cloudy day.

Life, or Something Like It

Eventually it was time to start bringing the human element into this roll. I waited until the sun had started to get low enough to produce some very pronounced shadows. I wanted to use those shadows as much as possible. More than anything, though, it was the quality of the light that I was chasing. This wasn't quite golden hour lighting, but it was a hell of a lot better than that midday harshness.

The lifeguard, the ever present force of the waterpark, was difficult to avoid in many of these shots. So I decided to lean into that a bit. Documentary photography is something I enjoy, so I decided to include some elements of that into this roll as well. The really interesting thing, to me at least, is that because of how late I started including people into these shots, there were fewer human subjects to work with that there would have been when I was doing still life earlier.

A young child wearing a light yellow shirt smiles warmly with spontaneous joy while looking upward at the camera.

Working with those shadows was a lot of fun. I'm interested in how our shadows represent us from certain points of view. They are us, certainly, but distorted. The literary and critical analysis to be found here is wild. How do we see ourselves? How do others see us? How are we represented really?

I used shadows to help tell that story with this photo of people waiting in line. Seeing this line of people waiting for this attraction, seemingly suffering through boredom for delayed gratification was humorous to me. But in an effort to maintain decorum, I shot downwards, letting their shadows tell their story. You can just make out the water at the end of the line hinting at what might be so appealing so as to entice this many people to wait in line.

A young child in a yellow t-shirt rests their head on their arm while sitting near a window.

The shot I was most excited to take at this attraction, however, was this one of Link. For some reason he loves this obstacle course. It's probably the same reason that everyone was waiting in line...it's fun and challenging.

I waited for the right moment to release the shutter here. He was struggling to jump from one platform to another and finally jumped with his entire body, slamming onto the platform and letting out a big laugh. That moment of joy was the interaction I was hoping to capture.

This was moving more into traditional people photography. I was almost done with the roll. I needed to find another human subject to really push it overboard. I wanted to make a tighter portrait and complete the roll. And that's when Steph and Wes floated by on the lazy river.

A black Labrador dog peers over someone's shoulder outdoors on a sunny day as they wear sunglasses and white top.

You can just make out the lazy river in the background of the photo of Link completing the obstacle course. I clocked Steph and Wes, who had only a few minutes before been napping on my chest in our cabana, headed my way. I looked down and had two shots left on this roll. I made one but knew I would be unhappy with it. So I thought about how exactly to make this last one.

I asked Steph to float by closer to me and threw myself on the floor near the lazy river. I waited until they were close, very close, and made a very tight portrait of them. There is very little context provided here. This is what I wanted: a gentle transition to photos with no living element to photos with almost nothing but the living element. My film advance lever would not crank, so I knew I was done and felt a sense of satisfaction that I had been able to set out to do something and completed it.

Two dogs playfully interacting together on a tiled floor with turquoise chairs in the background.

But Wait...There's More!

A person wearing a purple shirt gives two thumbs up while standing in front of a beige house.

View through glass window showing an indoor swimming pool with turquoise water and white tiled edges.

Retro-style dining room with white modern chairs around oval table, artwork on walls, and soft mood lighting.

My oldest, Link, has been into photography for a while now. He really loves my Leica Q. He's also more or less made my old Leica V-Lux 1 his own camera, which is great because I never use it anymore. But he wanted to shoot film. he was worried about missing focus and exposure, but there's no way to learn like jumping into film.

He used a Pentax I had laying around (which I had forgotten I'd listed on eBay and actually sold the day we got back from this trip), with a Pentax-M 50mm f2 lens. While there were some issues with focusing - he mentioned that he struggled with the split prism focusing screen - what was clear is that he has an eye for composition.

The photo of the pool reflecting the terrace screen is one I love. He used a pillar as foreground and I'm not sure if he has actually listened when I've tried to teach him about composition or if he did this intuitively. Either way, I'm damn proud of it!

A group gathers around a dining table for a meal under warm lighting with blue abstract artwork on the walls.

This one of the sun rising over the house is Link's favorite. And it is one of the nicest ones he made on this roll. He chose CineStill 50D for his first roll. I don't know if he remembered any of my past 50D shots, but I thought that for the setting, this was a great choice. It allowed him some flexibility outdoors.

My favorite, however, is this last one. Storm is turned around looking at Wes coming through the door, predictably ready to get into some trouble. Following Storm's eyesight as a leading line leads to Wes, left mysteriously mostly out of frame. Link's shadow also created a similar thematic leading line, showing that this person is also turned facing this mystery subject. It is a photo that shows some natural talent and a penchant for interesting and complex composition, two things I wish I was better at myself.

A spoonful hovers over a creamy white soup garnished with crispy toppings in a white bowl on a blue tablecloth.

And with that, this three parter comes to a close. It took me far too long to churn out these blogs and now summer is upon us. I'll no doubt be making more photos this summer and writing some more blogs. I'm sure Link will be making some more film photos as well. I'm looking forward to that especially. He loves to second shoot for me at smaller family events at which I make photos. Maybe David Ulloa Studio can one day become Ulloa & Sons Studio. Only time will tell.