I noted the irony. While chauffeuring family members to and from their skin cancer checkup, I bought a jigsaw of a dramatic sunset.
There was a large table of jigsaws, most sporting a “Buy Three For” sticker, and two of them were the same brand as my recently completed mini jigsaw, “Mindfully Blue”, which I remembered as a joyful experience.
Given that previous experience, there was nothing particularly unexpected or significant about piecing the sunset, so I didn’t bother creating a mini jigsaw.
Pieces away. Next one open.
The contrast was startling. It looks very, very muddy. Sometimes, a jigsaw has a sense of song. There could be a song in there somewhere, but it’s not a genre I’m familiar with. The amount of timber furniture certainly has an impact. When looking at the box, the highlights in the image stand out; of course. When looking in the box, the highlights are overwhelmed.
In response, I needed to create that mini jigsaw I’d so lazily avoided.
Out came the disassembled sunset and it’s brightest pieces.
Out came the camera and, now, haste produces a less than satisfying image. It too stands in contrast to the jigsaw just completed but for a different reason, too pale, too washed out.
I try again.
First step, adopt the traditional “make the colours pop” background. Black. Second step, dial back the brightness of the image, just a little. In both images, the increased contrast level is the same.
That feels more like it.
Series notes
In this photographic series called “Mini Jigsaws”, I select a small number of odd pieces from a puzzle just completed and re-assemble them. The aim is to distill something of the experience thrown up by this particular puzzle.
This was a Hinkler Books puzzle called “Tindakon Dazang Beach, Sabah, Malaysia”.
Cherrie Zell 