Photographer

Zac McDougall

Finalist in

Upper Primary Category

Written Statement

We often don’t look at the things around us that we see each day and observe the different textures they are made of. I wanted to take a series of photos which reflects the different patterns, colours and depth of some of the items we see each day but pay little attention to. Often textures in these industrial products seem cold and not as warm as those of the natural world, but using different light and different angles, you can begin to appreciate that even cold surfaces can be warm.

All three photos in this series were taken using a Cannon EOS5D Mark II on a 40mm lens.

The first image, ‘Benchlines’, was taken in the early afternoon using the light from shadows of the surrounding trees. It was taken on a shutter speed of 1/640 sec, with an aperture of f/3.2. The image was taken in colour and then edited in black-and-white. Changing the colour meant the coldness of the stainless steel became warmer and allowed the details of the lines of the bench to be more visible.

The second image, ‘Tread’, was taken on a shutter speed of 1/60 sec, with an aperture of f/4. The image was of a tyre of a wrecked-out car, which I edited out of the image to focus on the patterns and the depth of the actual tyre tread.

The third image, ‘Neglected’, is of the side of a burnt-out and rusted car which was left in bushland near our house. The picture was taken on a shutter speed of 1/125 sec, with an aperture of f/4. By zooming in and cropping the image, it makes the small grains of orange rust pop out against the flat iron surface. The colours make this hard surface warm and bright.