Explanation I want to do something a bit different for this post. I've always wondered about the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" and how realistic that really is. For this post, I have two pictures that are nicely related and want to see if 2 pictures and their relation to each other are worth a couple thousand words. With that, let's find out.

The two pictures here are focused on the bassist of Urban Heat who I wrote a post about last year. The first picture is a picture of a black man completely in tune with the music he's playing. His eyes, behind glasses, are softly closed as he plays. He stands to the right of the frame, illuminated from the front. The frame is largely a deep electric blue color with 3 cerulean lights in the back of the frame. The bassist, Paxel Foley, is standing to the front. Focus is quite close as it tapers softly across his face. In the far back the Elysium logo, written in white and having marble columns on the left and right, is being covered up, only showing e, l, y, s, and i. The top and bottom are solid white lines. It's illuminated in soft magenta light and out of focus but still legible.

Paxel, with his left hand in playing position, is covered with tattoos and seems entirely at ease in his element. His long dreadlocks fall across the front of his body, draped just touching the bass.

The second picture starts somewhat similar to the first. Paxel, whose face is no longer in frame is to the far right, only his hands playing and his body are visible. The focus of the picture is sharpest on his right hand, fresh off plucking a string. The front man, guitarist, and vocalist of Urban Heat, Jonathan Horstmann is half way between the left of the frame and where Paxel's hand is, about a third way into the frame. His features are faded and out of focus as he plays the guitar.

The Elysium logo is even less visible than the first picture, only the e is visible. Some of this is due to the lighting. Flaring out in bright pink, the lights cast shadows off the back of Horstmann. The accent lights are orange and the darkness casts a distinct deep purple hue. The bright lights render the white Elysium logo faded and hard to see. The light scatters as it enters the lens and there's bits of kaleidoscoping visible as slight but noticeable lens flare.

Unlike many pictures of Urban Heat, this one inverts the focus. Paxel, not Horstmann, is the one clear and in front while Horstmann plays guitar in the back. That said, it's obvious that Horstmann's role and presence is strong, even when not highlighted.

So this is my attempt at describing a couple pictures in more detail than I usually like. And how did I do in terms of words? A paltry 406 for the pair, 186 for the intro to the pictures and first picture (excluding the first paragraph of the post), 220 for the second. To me, it's clear that the second picture has more information in it and it shows. I think without some of the shared context, it probably would've ended up around 300-350. Ultimately, these two pictures are pretty similar, the first being simpler and the second adding extra context and detail on top. They're also pretty simple pictures which is not a bad thing. I think what I'm getting at is that 1000 words is a lot of words and maybe it's a saying that shouldn't be taken seriously. I did enjoy doing this though so I'll probably try it again in the future with some other pictures that I've taken or not.