So, an interesting thought came to my mind over the weekend there whilst trying to take a suitable picture of my Ball Fireman for Sunday’s post (which can I say is the answer to the above question, of which I’ll explain in further detail) is that no matter how hard I try, I find it rather difficult and time consuming taking pictures of this watch. Now maybe it’s just me and my albeit very limited photography skills but I’d love to know how anyone with a watch with a textured dial of some description (wavy dial on a Seamaster, icy texture on a Snowflake (see what I did there) or in my case, the circle ‘ripple’ effect of my Fireman) is able to take a nice enough photo of it without the dial looking warped in an aliasing type manner. Now dealing with frame rates, angles and lighting aside, no matter what I do, I find it very very difficult taking a photo I’m happy with.
Now, this got me thinking that whilst looking through my Instagram posts over the last wee while, I came up with a rather interesting observation in that those watches of mine which have textured dials (my Ball Fireman and the original CW Trident) feature very rarely on my page as compared to my other non textured dial watches (the Samurai and the Speedy – my new Trident I’ve not included in here but you get the idea). Ok, fair enough, if the watch is easier to photograph, I can see that having a positive correlation to it being featured more on an Instagram page but what if it goes further than that. What if, all other things being equal, one purchases a watch that photographs better over one that doesn’t? Or even further, what if one purchases a watch over another, for what some may say could be seen as a trivial reason? Don’t like a textured dial? Crown at 4oclock? Bidirectional bezel? At what point do we buy a watch because we personally like it or is it for the gratification of others?
Now I hope, no, in fact, I’m sure that the answer to the above question is ‘of course I’ll buy a watch because I like it and to hell what everyone else thinks’ which absolutely it should be. I’m only saying that perhaps amongst the lesser watch aficionados, unlike yourselves, that this may not be the case. Maybe for some people that Rolex purchase is just so folk know you’ve bought a Rolex, who knows. It just got my thinking juices flowing.
So after all that, you know what I’ve decided? Is that no, I did not purchase the Fireman for any other reason that I liked the watch and appreciated the history behind the brand. The fact that it’s a little more difficult to photograph (ok a fair bit more) doesn’t change this fact at all. If anything, perhaps I should take the time to attempt and do the watch and how it looks justice. So I suppose that’s what I’ll try to do. Now, there’s always a question or at the very least a statement of intent after all my articles, so this week I’m interested as to which watch/es in your collection do you have a love/hate relationship with photographing and why. And as always, answers on a postcard….
Kicking off the actual legitimate aspect of the article is @donrogan with a quite lovely contrast-y Zenith shot. Very tasty indeed!
I’m all up for a bit of garnish, especially if it involves @watchmebiohack and his Tudor Black Bay. Simply wonderful my friend!
Not one to be outdone by a bit of creativity is @mayankshrimukh who almost sets his Seiko Chariot on fire with his submission! (I hope you all see what I did there 🙂
Life may not be ideal during these testing times, but it is still indeed good enough. Hats off to @racerke083 for reiterating this message with a stunning half submerged Breitling shot.
If it’s even possible, it seems that @knights.watch Sinn is even more photogenic when it’s taking a nap!
Now, these testing times may not necessarily require anything as potent as Xanax, nevertheless, @oreficeria_bobba_vercelli gets our heart racing a lovely Citizen capture!
As you all well know, the Snowflake is definitely on my next to purchase list, especially when seeing how beautifully @the.automatic.diver captures it!
We’ve rarely had a double exposure submission on HalfWatchTuesday, but now that @belmont_watches has shown us how to do it, merging his Speedy with the moon, I’m sure we’ll see more of it! Amazing shot!
@horonlogy then goes full awesome with a quite fantastic Samurai shot. If i could make mine look this good, I’d just retire now!
And finally, @minigrailwatchreview then goes even further, out of this world even, bridging both time and space to bring us a quite spectacular shot of his Constellation.
And just like that, it seems our time together has come to an end. Continue to keep yourselves and your family safe watchfam, this system of things won’t last forever.
Until next time, yours in horology
Nicholas
@a_second_after_midnight
