Work of a Budding Artist

Work of a Budding Artist

I started today's photo with a completely different idea than what I ended up creating. The plan was simple: I would dip my hands into a backlit dish of water and photograph the surface tension wrapping around my fingers.

In practice, however, the dish was too small to get my hand in at an angle that worked, and it ended up looking awkward. While I was adjusting things, I slid my hands underneath the dish to reposition it, and the silhouette of my hands caught my eye. It was immediately more compelling than the original vision.

So I leaned into the pivot and allowed my artistic vision to shift. My hands underneath the dish looked a little too creepy, so I opted for a flower that I taped to the back of the dish to create a sharp outline. Then I used a pipette to drop water until a single droplet finally landed in the center of the flower. It was a great lesson in allowing the work tell you where it wants to go, and the result was both unexpected and beautiful.