The photo essay assignment required that I pick one of their prompts in addition to the object I used in my 50 renderings assignment (a camera). The protagonist that stood out to me was the colorful butterfly. The reason I chose this was because I’ve been wanting to shoot some black and white photos recently and I thought it could be an interesting collage of color, to use an animated butterfly along with black and white photography.
A butterfly protagonist with a camera was definitely a challenge to come up with a story for. So I started with what I had, a New York City backdrop with black and white photography.
The story
It was just like any other day for National Geographic Photographer Bobby the butterfly. He was on assignment in New York City, tasked with capturing the city skylines. He had always been interested in landscape photography his whole life. The scenery captivated him, and working in black and white was his preferred method of shooting. He swears by Ansel Adam’s book “The Negative.”
Setting up his first shot he couldn’t help but be bored with cloudless sky. There were no gradients in the mountains, only greenery and building reflections. He was uninspired to say the least. Maybe for the first time in his career, he was doubting the format in which he grew up using.
While setting up a shot using the railing on a balcony he noticed a fellow butterfly, one with colors he had never seen before. For the first time in his life, Bobby was seeing color. “I can’t believe the most beautiful butterfly I’ve ever seen, is in New York!” he thought to himself. Bobby needed to see if he could ask for a photo, it was not his usual style but for the first time he wanted to shoot in color.
Bobby switched lenses and chased after her, almost flying into foliage on the way! He was worried he had scared her off, after all even butterflies do not like the paparazzi.
Bobby lost sight of her and diligently went back to work. All day shooting landscapes, but he couldn’t get the image of the butterfly that got away. He even stopped to take a picture of a dilapidated plant. This is how Bobby was feeling inside, out of his comfort zone and decaying into his own sadness.
After a long day of work bobby decided to rest on a chair outside and drink a nectar-beer. He had finished his work for the day but still couldn’t get the other butterfly out of his mind. To his surprise, she approached him out of nowhere stating she was camera shy and didn’t appreciate him chasing after her with his camera! Bobby learned a valuable lesson that day, sometimes the best moments are experienced with his camera in his bag.
Will Politan ITP Blog 