This is the third day I’m taking up Patti’s pilotfish challenge: Lens-Artist Photo Challenge: #66: Filling the Frame. In today’s post I’m showing how “negative” space can become an essential element of the photo.
I had tried to capture this skylight several months ago with my DSLR and standard lens. Due to the fact that the skylight isn’t flat on the top, I found that if one part of the skylight was in focus, another part wasn’t. And since I was standing on the floor, I couldn’t simply back up to create more space between me and the object. I finally packed it in and figured that I’d come back to it another time. The skylight is in one of our local Peet’s coffee stores, so I knew it would be no problem to come back and drink more delicious coffee. However the next time I was in, I didn’t have my camera with me. So I took a chance and took the shot with my phone. I was shocked at how perfectly it turned out. The ceiling registered as a deep, smooth black, and I had purposely angled the shot a little bit. The result is that the “walls” of the skylight, and the skylight itself appear to be floating in space – a very Salvador D’alí effect that I absolute love. The black of the ceiling would normally be considered negative space. And yet if I cropped off the black area, the result of seeing only the skylight would have produced a completely unremarkable photograph. Instead, I have a photo that I want to hang on my wall.
Zebra's Child 
I love this, Hannah. Isn’t it crazy how the camera phones take better shots than the DSLR? This is very Dali-esque. I love the abstract.
Thank you Patti! 😀
And yes, it IS crazy that our phones take better shots that the DSLR!
What a beautiful capture! Love it!
Thank you so much, Amy. I was so surprised that the ceiling came out as this flat, smooth black. That made all the difference in the quality of the shot. 🙂
Dali-esque is exactly right. Love this Hannah.
Thank you Su. I had struggled so much on this skylight with my DSLR camera about a month before, that I didn’t hold out much hope for a phone capture, but I thought I should at least try. That store front and ceiling are almost a hundred years old and the skylight is beautiful. So I took the shot with my phone, looked at the image and realized that I had nailed it in one go. I drove home on an absolute high and couldn’t wait to see it on my computer!