Self-portrait in chandelier

click photo to enlarge

People don't often feature as the main subject in my photographs. They sometimes creep in for scale, I often include them for visual "weight" in a composition, or I might add someone as a focal point in, say, a landscape. But full-on portraits, human-interest shots, or the many subjects e.g. sport, that feature people strongly, are not for me. It's not that I have anything against people: in fact, some of my best friends are people! But pointing a camera at them just doesn't appeal.

There is one photographic genre where I do make a person the focus of the image, and that is the self-portrait. I like to include one of these in the blog every now and then. However, they're usually not very revealing, are often distorted, and I can seem a bit incidental in some of the compositions. This photograph is a case in point. I was photographing in and around a Lincolnshire church when I noticed an eighteenth century chandelier hanging in the nave. Such objects are reasonably common in English churches. However, this one was hanging a bit lower than usual, and the dedicatory inscription was mainly to the side, so there was a good and clear reflection down the central aisle. Consequently, I pointed my camera at it, smiled (though you wouldn't know it), and took this shot.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 11mm (22mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/20
ISO: 800
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On