<- Click hereSummer in the south sears. The light is brilliant as Democrats imagine their Presidents to be.
Noon-time shine is the stuff that chases photographers indoors. There's just no way a camera can capture details in highlights and shadows, right? Short of tripods, bracketing, and HDR tedium in post processing... well best not try to capture scenics between 11 am and maybe 4:30 p.
Problem is we were in Beaufort, SC at noon. And we had about two hours to try to get a sense of this old-South county seat that was founded in 1711. This was the heart of King Cotton until the Yankees occupied the area during the Civil War. Oh it made some comeback afterward, but the Boll Weevil ended that a few decades later. The place is reblooming now and fixing up places that haven't had major remods since the 1920s.
So, how to capture the 1920s ambiance while placing Beaufort squarely in Dixie? I decided that runny water colors were just exactly right. They gave me the chance to block some of the highs, while filling up the shadows. Or at least I imagine the effect does. Whacha think?
BTW, if you saw the movie Forrest Gump, and recall Gump being interviewed for TV just after he crossed the Mississippi River bridge - well this is a key place. It's where they sat the cameras for that shot. Immediately to my left as I took this picture is a bridge over the Beaufort River. Since they shot many of the location shots here in Beaufort, they saw no need to travel to the Midwest to get one picture. So for the movie, they changed the sign over this bridge to read "Mississippi River". Hollywood magic!
3 comments:
"The light is brilliant as Democrats imagine their Presidents to be"!
Goodness, Ted, I really can't say that I've ever had sympathy for the Republicans, but - what a sentence! It makes me giggle on and on :)
As to the effect, no, it does not work for me, at least for me it does not solve the problem that you described. The result looks a bit like a toy world to me, you know, these plastic palms that you can put in front of your painted, wooden toy house. OK, such houses probably don't exist any more, but you know what I mean. If diminution is what you're after, then it certainly works, but for me the brilliance of the light is totally gone.
Hmm ... I've seen you solve the very same problem so many times in so brilliant ways, that I guess I've completely misunderstood something here. Any comment?
Andreas
Thanks for the critque Andreas,
I've got to admit that when I do these heavily stylized creations they are received somewhat reluctantly at best by visitors. However, they are also the pronounced extension of my interpretaton of an image.
As an example of my edgy creativity see this or take a look at this image that I also like a lot.
Admitedly they go beyond a pretension of photographic rendering, but without the photo as fuel, the engine would never have spun in any of these cases. Plus, you should see them blown up LARGE and hung on a wall. Yowzah!
Ahh, the wonderful sunrise! But that's exactly what I meant. This is a perfect example of the brilliance of the light NOT being gone!
Anyway. You know I'm addicted. It does not matter when I don't agree about one certain image. I simply must and will come back :)
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