The idea was simple, 3 rolls of film spread out over a few weeks, each dedicated to looking for everyday items in green, red, and blue. 1 roll per colour.
Towards the end of my 52 rolls of film, I started to think about what mini-projects I could start after finishing. Whilst I still haven't landed on my next big project (but I do have some ideas!), I thought I could experiment a bit and think more about the photography theme than the film I would use. I thought this particular idea could be interesting, the task was simple, just go for a walk and look for everything in a particular colour.
Actually there was a bit of intent behind this idea. I wanted to practice being more aware, and I think focusing on a particular colour does exactly that. It also makes you go slightly crazy where all you end up seeing is that colour!
These shots were mostly taken within a 15min walk of my house, with very few taken down in Heidelberg and its surroundings. All shot with Kodak Portra 400 and my Rolleiflex camera, taken over a period of a few weeks in total.
1. Green - for good luck!
Actually, I found green was one of the easiest colours to find in abundance. Of course you could go around photographing just trees and nothing else, but that's kind of cheating.
Turning a beer case into a bicycle basket, how very practical. Jever is a bitter nice-once-you-get-used-to-it beer from Jever, a small town in East Frisia (northern Germany)
Always good to have a bit of green near the gym (my rowing club).
No prizes for guessing what this is. Greens everywhere, though!
Accidental double exposure, came out quite well in the end!
Actually, if you look hard enough you will find more than just green objects, but cool patterns that make up some interesting compositions, like this shot below.
Pity it was not a darker car, it would have blended in better with the background.
Green batteries.
Actually in reality this facade had much stronger greens to it, I underexposed a bit I think as the tree was not that dark.
Green graffiti.
The (green) grounds of Goethe University.
2. Reds - getting your attention!
Actually red was the second most popular colour, and one that is hard to miss. Makes sense, as it is used to bring attention to something (either a flashy car or a red light!)
There's nothing quite like a red sports car.
Good old Illy coffee. I actually had forgotten I had a yellow filter on (I use this for black and white photography), hence the yellow tinge of this shot. Kinda works with the red though!
A very bright red fire hydrant of some kind, talk about deep reds!
Red taillights and seat cover (tartan in fact!).
With the word 'Red' in red, well I just had to take this shot.
Show me the light.
I actually like this shot a lot, if I ever worked on an abstract project, this could definitely go into it.
A not so great shot of some car lights.
Nothing like red in nature.
Love this shot, great clarity and colour.
Red mural.
Part of the Frankfurt Auto Messe.
3. Blue's - just blending in
This one was the hardest to find, and actually took me a few attempts to get any decent shots.
A big sign and a long word.
A slightly dirty Italian moped, in blue!
Interesting how Europe is always associated with this colour.
Blue bus.
A very big blue wheel.
Actually quite faded, but still blue.
I always say how important it it to look up, and when you are lucky you will be greeted with some wonderfully blue skies, sometimes obstructed by a massive wing!
Yeah this is more lilac I know, but the reflection is very cool!
Final thoughts
I'm certainly not going to win any competitions with my write-up here, there isn't that much to say about a particular colour. But the point of this post was more about the looking for a colour, and it did show that if you are more aware and keep your eyes open, there really is a lot of colour and interesting things to look at in this world. It is so easy to ignore and be blind to all of it, so it was nice to slow down and see so many colours.
I will say however, that I am glad this isn't any kind of long term project, then I would definitely start dreaming about specific colours. But for an afternoon's walk, it's great fun!
Thanks for stopping by,
Cheers,
Neil
