Breitling Avenger

This image represented somewhat of a eureka moment for me. I had just purchased a macro lens. I knew I wanted to capture the subtle details and character of some watches that I owned and enjoyed. But like everything else it seems, I had a very difficult time translating the picture in my head to what came out of the camera. I tried different lighting setups with flash, different backgrounds to accentuate the character that I felt the watch possessed, I tried different composition, various props, I tried everything but ultimately failed coming up with something I felt good about.

The day I took this picture, I was sitting in my car after work staring at this watch that I had on my wrist all day thinking, wow this thing is mesmerizing, maybe I'll take a couple shots not really expecting anything to result.

I have a tendency to use a lot of shadow in my images and I saw that a good background for this picture might be my armrest which is a semi matte black material. I thought if I could bokeh the background a little bit, the rather pedestrian window controls might look a little cooler and not like the Dodge Caravan window locks that they actually are lol. The natural ambient light coming from the window was awesome and really highlighted the watch. The way the light added color in the matte finish of the titanium case and the rich blue of the dial was just really great. So I took the picture. Total setup time was maybe 2 minutes. I took 2 or 3 more shots, started the car and drove away not thinking twice.

After I got home and took a look at what I had captured it hit me... I spent all this time previously trying to figure out what I needed to do from a technical standpoint to recreate how I saw this watch in my mind. everything that I did just wasn't resulting in what I envisioned. What ultimately did it for me was just opening my eyes, stepping back from all the gadgetry and technology and just shooting a picture that looked good at that point in time.

And here it is. Probably not much to most people, but for me, this image is special. It taught me to keep my eyes open to these situations that present themselves all the time. This is a lesson that I will carry with me as I grow into being a photographer and one that I am thankful for.