Winfield photographer looks for new ways to present everyday images
Randy Link was checking out the vehicles at a car show a while back when the combination of a shiny chrome wheel and the rainbow of colors it reflected - blues, reds, greens, pinks - caught his eye.
Link crouched to get closer, took out his trusty Canon Rebel EOS, and began clicking away.
He knew right away he had taken a cool picture and so did we - which is why he won first place in our monthly Photo Finish contest for September.
"My best shots seem to be tightly cropped subjects," the retired Winfield man says. "This is the type of photo that has no up or down, it can be turned 90 or 180 degrees for effect. I rotated the original image 90 degrees and it looked like a little chrome man walking, kind of like a chrome Gumby."
If you look at the picture closely, he says, you may see many images in the reflection, some real and some illusions.
"Another car," he says, "people, a sunburst, a moon, the edge of the brim of my hat, colors that meld into each other like liquid, a baby ultrasound, a witch's hat, a Wii video controller. There's lots more there than first meets the eye.
"Some people would say this isn't one of my best works," he says, "but if they could see this image on a computer screen or a 16x20 print, they would be able to see in it what your photo editors saw: a work of art."
Indeed, members of our photo staff are big fans of Link's image.
"I like this one because the photographer used a tight composition to turn a simple object into a dramatic photo with great color," DuPage Photo Director Scott Sanders said. "Turning the horizontal shot into a vertical makes the wheel now look somewhat like a futuristic robotic monster."
For his efforts, Link will win a $50 gift certificate from PJ's Camera, Pickwick Place Plaza, 662 Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn.
The certificate probably will come in handy because Link is a longtime photographer who has been interested in the hobby since he was a kid.
"Our parents gave my brother and I a small Kodak camera back in about 1959 or 1960," he says, "and that's where it started for me."
He says he got his first 35 mm camera in 1972, upgraded in the 1980s and then went digital in the late 1990s.
Like most photographers, he takes plenty of photos at family events, but Link says he most enjoys looking for something different, something you don't see - or, at least, notice - every day.
"I'm looking for the composition, looking for life, the light, the lines, the curves, the swirls, patterns," he says. "I like to break the rules a bit."
Like, he says, when he decided to focus on the wheel of the car instead of the whole vehicle.
Oh, and by the way, he says the wheel wasn't the only cool part of the car.
"I liked the grill," he says, "and carburetor, too."
About our contest
If you'd like to submit a photo for consideration, email it in .jpg format with at least 300 dpi resolution to dupagecontest@dailyherald.com. Include your name, address and a phone number, plus a description of where you took the photo. The winner will receive a $50 gift certificate from PJ's Camera, Pickwick Place Plaza, 662 Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn.