Numbers are everywhere in the city, but this theme turned out to be a challenge. First, most numbers I came across were addresses, and I didn't want to end up with nine photos that looked the same. It was hard to find other examples of numbers that also still had interesting subject matter around them. This led to the second problem. A lot of great Instagram feeds I had seen featuring numbers, and which inspired this theme, are close-up shots of numbers. See @roadtrip_newengland's #countingboston hashtag. Their photos make the number the main subject (not to mention they're posting in numerical order!), but I realized early on that I wanted photos that still show a sense of place, or a street scene. Those two ideas don't really go together.
This is evident in the three different photos I took of numbers on T trains. I kept looking for the right composition, and ended up with the one showing the widest view because it matched the others in the theme best. But I think I like the close-up one the most, on the left. It's just more visually graphic. If only there were more people visible in the window, then maybe it would have the right human element that the others do.
Anyway, I spent a lot of time walking the city looking for just the right numbers, which doesn't make for a bad summertime activity. I definitely have more leftovers (photos I took and didn't end up using) than I've had for any theme in a while. Most of my themes don't really focus on small objects, with the exception of Summer Still-life, so I guess that might be why this didn't come as naturally. Hope you still enjoy this set!
