Sisyphus This!

There is a general rule about making photos. The best ones are the first frame or the last frame.

First impressions or earned credit.

This photo is earned credit as I watched the strings of light pulled from the trees by men on stepladders, in aerial buckets, and with long hooked poles. All the strings were tossed into several piles around the tree for later retrieval.

I waited knowing a photo of a giant ball of tangled LED lights would be great. This was the last ball carried to the truck and I’d already made photos of the previous trips.

None of the other photos had a clear background, nor were the lights tangled in a ball shape. The background had a truck, or buildings, or roadway as distractions.

I’d stepped further away for this photo shooting with a telephoto to narrow my angle of view and compress the background hoping he’d walk in front of the tree which was the dark background I needed.

My plan worked as he cradled the tangled cords and turned toward me.

The entanglement of the lights almost gives the impression of a modern Sisyphus, perennially bound to the task of untangling the possibilities of making good photos from ordinary events.