Legends of the Fall Part II

Last week I was engaged in meetings at our corporate head office in beautiful Redmond, Washington.  I love the Pacific Northwest, at least when the weather is cooperating.  And this trip was no exception.  Colors were vivid and are only going to get crazier over the coming weeks.
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Legends of the Fall

Enjoyed shooting some vivid early autumn colors this weekend.  To my eyes it seems that we’ve had a longer shake at this than normal; usually the leaves drop soon after they turn resulting in a fairly bleak pre-winter landscape.
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Corydon

It’s Long Weekend Time here and I decided to extend it an extra day.  Passed the time this morning with another self-imposed “photowalk”, this time down Corydon Avenue.  Funky area, nice morning, and a relaxing way to start the weekend.  Made my way home early afternoon and spent the balance editing and making some prints.

The entire set can be seen here on Flickr.  Below are my favorites of the morning.

First off is an otherwise simple scene of a red mailbox offset against a green light standard against an essentially monochomatic background.  I have a vertical of this as well with just those two elements.  But for this framing I wanted to add someone walking by, oblivious to what I thought was an interesting splash of color.  Many thanks to this gentleman out for a morning stroll for adding the extra interest.  I particularly like the book peeking out of his pocket.  Wondering if he’s coming from or heading to somewhere to read it.


Further along was a gunmetal gray brick storefront.  Another monochromatic scene otherwise interrupted by splashes of color.  And again it turns out there is red and green playing off each other.  I really liked those aspects of the frame as well as the shapes and geometry of it all.


In contrast to the order of “For Sale” above is the grit and dirt of this tucked away alcove, featuring a broom that deserves more use.  This area is actually in somewhat of a “grotto” behind a metal gate so I was standing there poking my lens through the opening, presumably looking quite silly.  This is probably an indication of how my brain works as despite the pile of debris there is still order here with plenty of straight lines throughout.  I also love the texture of the stucco’d wall and soft diffused light.


And finally some more stucco and texture… and green.  I have a thing for shadows and contrast.  And here I like that you can see the tree trunk, but its leaves and branches are visible only by way of the shadows they cast.  That these happen to be on a green wall sweetens the deal.


All in all a successful and enjoyable day.  Test prints are waiting for me for each of these to be reviewed, refined, and printed to large(ish) scale.

Now… it’s Margarita Time.

A Fort-uitous Surprise

To quote Col. Hannibal Smith from the A-Team: “I love it when a plan comes together.“

At least after the fact.

Back to the vacation images and started reviewing the frames from our approach into Charlotte Amalie, the territorial capital of the US Virgin Islands located in St. Thomas.  There are a couple of islands nestled in St. Thomas Harbour, the closest of which I learned is Hassel Island.  

As is easy to understand in retrospect, Hassel Island offered an ideal location for military fortifications back in the day (“the day” being 1802), guarding the harbour entrance against incoming marauders (the earliest “cruise ships”).  To that end you can see the ruins along the southeastern shore resting in stark contrast to the luxury of our vessel, and the solitude of the Caribbean island town ahead.

If anything, the Caribbean is know for its color.  Beautiful blue skies, turquoise waters, with the countryside a (dare I say) verdant yellow and green.  Makes sense here in St. Thomas where apparently 9-months of the year it’s officially “wet season.”

And so it makes perfect sense for me to turn that on its head and go Hard Core Monochrome thusly…

Fort Willoughby, Hassel Island

The original, which I’m not posting, had all the color characteristics you would expect.  And while nice and inviting, that’s not what I saw.  Consider the light, playing in and out of the clouds to the east.  This created a beautiful, albeit intermittent, spotlight effect on what I learned is Fort Willoughby, perched at the island’s corner.  Likewise alternately casting the mountainsides in brightness and shadow (“chiaroscuro” if you want to get all fancy).  Then there is that Big Freaking Cloud, positively glowing but ominous at the same time.  Light, dark, ominisosity.  Not to mention the fact that we’re looking at ruins here.

It practically screams “toss the color, make ‘er black and white”.

So while I did originally plan for a B&W image the surprise I alluded to in the title is not the processing decision but rather the intensity of it, and that it quickly became one of my favorite images I’ve ever developed.  Yay, me.  Tagged the crap out of it before sending it out into the world in hopes that it may see a life in stock agencies (submissions pending).

Bean There, Done That

In a change of pace from tackling the whack {technical term} of images from vacation, with inspiration fuelled by caffeine, I happened upon this scene with my iPhone this afternoon.  In need of some coffee I popped into my local haunt, and on my way out stopped and looked and shot.

Anyone who has an intense interest in photography will recognize the need to search out light, and be quick to point a lens in its direction when you come across it.  This of course becomes easier these days with phone cameras being much more useable.  With care, of course.  Their dynamic range is next to nothing and you need to pay extra attention to the highlights else they get blown to smithereens.

This article was linked in one of my online readers.  The author makes the following statement: “Once you become fully aware of the quality of light around you, you will become more curious with your camera.”  This is absolutely true, and is what leads me to be interested in seemingly mundane scenarios like this:


Simply a woman enjoying an afternoon coffee fix.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Except for the light.

It’s burning through the window and backlighting the shop’s ad banner, which is what first caught my eye.  It’s bouncing up off the table and the cup and lighting her face.  Exposing for those highlights presents them in stark contrast to the surrounding shadows and with that some added drama.  The warm/cool color contrasts don’t hurt either.   Ideally a better camera with a faster lens would have allowed me to blur out the distracting background across the street to better isolate the subject – not a chance with an iPhone.  Regardless, for me the light shows the comfort and warmth of the coffee house.  

Or maybe it was just the caffeine sizzling through my veins.
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