Controlled Chaos

I still don’t have much of a clear idea of where my photography journey is heading. The only thing I know is that the only way to find the answers is to pick up my camera and start shooting—left, right, wherever my eyes take me.

So, as evening approached, I once again held my A6000 in my hands and made my way to Ubud’s main street. Just like before, I deliberately set the shutter speed to 1/10 second and the ISO to 25,600, exploring through those imperfect images.

Over the past two months, I have walked up and down this street countless times. By now, there isn’t much that catches my eye as something new: streams of traffic and people constantly moving through the street, day after day, while the trees lining both sides remain, as always, the same.

So how can I push myself beyond my limits? As I walked along the same road, thinking about the same question, my eyes once again landed on the same puddle of water. I thought to myself: I didn’t do a very good job photographing you last time. I wonder what it will look like this time?

Driven by curiosity, I crouched down in the most ordinary street imaginable and carefully observed my surroundings, hoping to discover something extraordinary.

I didn’t manage to photograph anything extraordinary. But after taking these two photos, I suddenly had an idea:

Why not just photograph water? The “light” and “movement” I had in mind, combined with water, seemed like a pretty good idea. So I decided to keep photographing water, ignoring everything else around me.

As I continued walking, the sky gradually grew darker. Eventually, I arrived at the fountain between Jl. Raya Road and Jl. Monkey Forest Road.

I thought to myself: I passed by here during my last street photography session too, and I took a photo of it then. But I wasn’t particularly happy with the result. I wonder how it will turn out this time?

I carefully examined every corner of the fountain, noticing small details I had overlooked before: the moments when the streams of water fell onto the stone statues, the splashes and ripples created when the water hit the surface, and the lights installed around the fountain:

I especially like the last photograph.

The streams of water pass through the nozzles of the fountain, shooting into the sky at almost the same angle and with almost the same force, again and again. Then, they fall randomly onto the surface of the water, creating chaotic splashes and ripples—an image that is orderly and chaotic at the same time.

Although the scene is unique in every single moment, the results are remarkably similar. Its chaos is confined within a defined boundary. At the very least, not a single drop of water splashed onto me.

Isn’t this exactly what I have been searching for?