Evidence of Time: Day One, One Dirty Fan
A black-and-white close-up of a dusty fan, with curved rows of white grille bars framing years of accumulated dirt on the blades behind them.
Day one of a 30-day challenge to get away from the computer, take the Nikon D7200 outside, and start looking at the world through a viewfinder again. The assignment was simple: Evidence of Time.
Instead, the day started with possible malware alerts on a client’s web server. Then came a 75-minute drive, five hours wrestling with a client’s printer, and another 90 minutes driving home in traffic. The camera came along for the ride, but the photo walk never happened.
By bedtime I felt like I’d failed on the first day. My accountability buddy suggested photographing my toe. That was going to cost extra.
So I photographed the biggest, dirtiest fan I could find instead.
The dirt was the point. Dust builds slowly, almost invisibly, until one day it’s impossible to miss. Behind the white grille, it becomes an accidental record of passing time. The repeating lines and arcs gave me a composition; the grime gave it meaning.
I shot it on the D7200 and gave the black-and-white image a quick pass through ART (AnotherRawTherapee) on a laptop that’s nearly 14 years old. It’s my first time with the software, so the contrast isn’t quite where I’d normally put it. The laptop, for its part, is still hanging in there.
Did I get my 15 minutes outdoors? No. Did I pick up the camera, look deliberately, and make a photograph? Yes.
Not the Day One I planned. Still a Day One worth keeping.
Not Lost. Just Curious.