before yoga :: light play

This month, I'm back to feeling inspired and working on taking a photo a day.  So far, so good - just need to remember to think about my next shot the day before.  And so it went for this shot...

The set up... I've been working on building a morning yoga habit {to complement the hot yoga on the weekends}.  After dropping Lukas off at BART I toss open the mat, pull up the Yoga Studio app, breath deeply, and begin.  There's something about the first moments and the warm lamp light that sets the mood and is utterly peaceful.  That's the feeling I wanted to try to capture, but feelings can be tricky to put to screen with just the click of a shutter.

The first picture above is where I started.  Most of the living room lights on - not actually how I practice, but hoping to get enough light to make the picture work.  And, mostly, I think that it does but when I looked at the screen I thought I can do better.  Let's play with the light.

In the next shot I shut of all the lights except for the one coming from behind and to my left.  This yielded a much more dramatic shot.  It gave the sense that I was up before the sun.  The tones in the light felt more like it does when I'm actually bending through the different positions.  But the focus of the image was me and that wasn't quite what I was going for... even though it is a self-portrait.  And so...

I changed the light source.  Now, from the camera's perspective, I was backlight.  The light spilling in from the doorway in front and to the left.  As I pulled my hair into the ponytail, my arms caught the highlights.  The shadows played differently across each of my legs and there is just a hint of light outlining the side of my face.  In this image, my eyes are drawn to both the prints - grey whale cove on the wall and bryce canyon resting on the floor.  This shot?  This was the one I was picturing in my head.  To me, it tells the story of doing yoga.  The wave sounds in the background on the yoga app fit perfectly with the water flowing out in the image on the wall.  That is my place of calm; where I go to in my mind.  

Each of the above shots tells the same story or actually, tell a different story of the same morning activity.  They are similar, just slightly different, but different enough that I didn't just settle for that first image.  And, looking back at each of them, it was challenging to pick which one was "the one".  The thing about photography is, your reaction to a image is so highly personal.  The story it tells you and the feelings it can evoke are intertwined with your own experiences and ideas.  The best a photographer can do is try to tell their story with light and dark, composition and exposure.  

I'm working on it.