Visual Assignment 129—Cropped Signs (2 stars). I’m finding these assignments a lot of fun. They really challenge you to look at things differently, creatively. The thinking about it, trolling for an appropriate sign and planning the execution was a little time consuming, but I was thinking about it all day, all week, looking around as a went about my days. At work, driving to and from work, every place I visited, every sign I saw, I was contemplating if it was crop worthy for this assignment. I knew this would be fun if I could just find the right subject sign. But I was challenging myself to just be able to take the shot, isolating the right words, without editing the photo later.

Today, I decided to take a walk around historic downtown Fredericksburg to take photos. For visual assignments, for daily creates, for fun. Along the way, I took notice of all sorts of signs, evaluating them skeptically for potential for this assignment. Store signs, road signs, advertisements, etc. It was hot and busy, and my camera was dying. I gave up. I got back into my car and made my way back through downtown to head home. Then it caught my eye! It was on the edge of an alleyway. After finding a place to park and walking several blocks back to the scene, I got the perfect shot! No editing, just using the megazoom on my new Canon PowerShot SX260. I love it!

Here is the whole sign for The Back Yard at J. Brian’s Tap Room at 200 Hanover Street, Fredericksburg, Va.

I doubt the owner’s would approve of my creative cropping of their signage as the new meaning, while funny, is not very hospitable.

Now I can’t stop looking at signs in a new way…creatively, and a little twisted maybe, but fun nonetheless.