Contact-sheet interlude

1 roll; 12 images; a choice to make.

Finally a day vaguely covered. Not exactly overcast, but I’ll take what I can get.

In the Texas sun, in June, even the road melts, so a cloud —any cloud— will do.

And then, there’s the one. The one hanging cloud that is exactly where it needs to be, as I am, at the exact right time.

Such things don’t happen very often. I know my luck and am grateful enough but I’ll deal with those thoughts later. For now, I’d better get out of the car and shoot right away. A single breeze can ruin the image.

Looking back at the contact-sheet, I see that this moment —this cloud— was unique in that day.

Some of the other images are worth printing too but the one that outplays all the rest is the #3.

I debated a lot between the second and the third one. The slight change of angle makes a whole lot of difference to me.

On the second one, the road’s texture clashes nicely with the cloud’s softness. But then, despite the horizon splitting the image exactly in the middle —which gives an interesting geometrical structure to the road and the desert— I feel there’s an imbalance in the image.

And that’s what led me to pick the third one.

The main event in this image is obviously the cloud. The road serves as a pedestal. A leading context toward the subject. Hence a little more sky.

Which has become my ally that day after all.