This week, I recorded nine different videos that I could roughly group into two groups - experiments with light, experiments with texture. Of course, what is texture in an image but the nature of the light’s reflection?

Most of the videos are either from transit sources or from a kitchen setting. I thought it would be interesting to specifically limit myself to everyday scenes, to force new perspectives on common scenes or occurrences. Most of the time it was easy to achieve this just by zooming in a lot, removing the context that would normally familiarize the shot.

1. The slide-in-out subway platform at the Union Square 4/5/6 stop. I think the textures here are really interesting, since the horizontal bars and the diagonal tread metal both have a regular pattern that is somewhat harshly juxtaposed. I do wish I was able to frame the shot more carefully.

1. The reflection of light in a glass cup containing coffee. This one was interesting since the liquid quivered slightly, allowing the reflection to move in a sort of unintuitive way. I think a careful cropping of the frame could also accentuate the shot.

1. A close up of a LED array advertisement board in the subway. I really enjoyed the effect of seeing each individual LED pixel since normally your brain interprets the pixels from a different distance as a complete image.

1. Two shots of an electric water kettle. This one was really interesting because of a small light or lens flare effect that moved somewhat unpredictably

1. A shot of a stovetop water kettle. The flow of water was really unexpectedly entrancing.

1. Simple shadow movement on a wall. This shot I focused on rotating the phone around an axis instead of lateral motion.

1. Another close up shot of a light matrix. This one featured scrolling text which created a different effect from the dramatic color changes of the subway board.

1. A shot of the street from my bicycle. In the light the mica in the street is quite reflective, although this didn’t come through very well in the low light conditions of the video.