Hands

Hands, 2005

Normally I photograph outdoors, shooting scenes as I find them. This image one of the first ones where I composed the image in my mind before I shot it. In this case I was both the photographer and the subject (I posed for both hands). I wanted the lower are to appear tortured and desparate while the upper arm to be calm and reassuring. It was shot as two separate photos and stitched together in post-process.
The interesting part was the lighting. I used a simple desk lamp that I placed on the floor. I didn't have a high place to put the light, so I put it on the floor and pointed the light upward. As a result I had the shoot the arms upside down. I shot the upper arm while lying on my back and holding my arm up. It took a bit of mental juggling to figure out which arm had to be lit on which side and from which direction. I like how the photo turned out, although if I were to shoot this today I'd probably frame the shot differently.