Sunday, March 23

Lori's

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Tucked away on the corner of Ghirardelli Square, perhaps one of San Francisco's best known facades. Um, well, maybe not. As you can see this place is hard to miss, but there's so much going on atop the square that maybe Lori's Diner's overlooked. Maybe you never even noticed?

Strange how life works like that. Someone squealing, "Look at me! Look... Look... Look!" And we don't.

Why is that? Huh?
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BTW: For those who email for details on what the original looked like... Here y'go. Wuddaya think?

6 comments:

April said...

Ok. This is one where I'm grateful to see the original.

What you've done to create the feeling of being inside another cafe, and looking out across the street, is brilliant.

Debra Trean said...

Always amazing and I look forward to visiting SF myself - Your work always amazes me how you can create such an amazing piece after piece. Huge fan of your work and love to learn from watching what you do.

John Roberts said...

Once again your unique vision has left us with an image that tells us so much more than just what a place looks like. This one gives the viewer a little of the "feel" of what it's like to be there. I aspire to do some of what you've done on a trip to Washington next month - I want to come back with more than just "postcard" shots. It seems to be an illusive thing that goes way beyond any technique.

Andreas said...

Hmm ... your image may much better express what you feel about that place, but for me who has not been there, the original composition looks fantastic. It would be a different story, sure, but obviously you originally framed it with some different story in mind. Why did you abandon it? Did the idea determine the final image? Or did the the crop and the mirror suddenly appear before your mind's eye? Did you feel the original was trivial? Mere beauty? Or is this simply your normal process? We don't see so many of your out-of-the-camera shots after all.

I ask, because for me it is a rather unusual thing to so radically change an image.

mcmurma said...

When I first looked at the image I was sure, quite sure, that it had been shot next to some large volume of glass. Perhaps in the alcove a store front across the way as you escaped a misting rain... and I thought that it a lovely capture that really brought out the sparkle and the charm of the scene in a unique way. I didn't even notice the original.

Then when I came back and viewed it for the second time and saw the date on the image that I realized that I was wrong. You had been time traveling! And this image was something born out of a time and place that does not yet exist. "Aha!" I exclaimed. "So that's his secret!"

Seriously, it is your forte to create such fiction in images. Even dramatic ones such as this. And I like it. I don't even care so much about the "why" of what went into the creation of this image so much as the appeal of the image itself.

Does it make any difference to me or my enjoyment of the image that it was not shot from a windowed store front across the street... that the reflections are careful constructions of your minds-eye and not part of the reality of the scene? Nope. Not at all.

Ted said...

(April, Deb & John) Thanks for "getting it" and I particularly like your interpretation April.
(Andreas) As you can see from the original on the right there is a ghost ball. In fact that was a reflection in a window. And it was the reflection which drew me to this place hidden down a half level from everything else on the square. But there was very little of interest off to the left. And I wanted it... Wanted to juxtapose night time reality (which as you have demonstrated in your work Andreas... is never quite real) with the unreality of reflections. So I create the fictional reflections of night time 'reality' to resolve the tensions of a neon darkness.
(Michael) Again your poetry brings so much to my mind... You have alluded to feelings that make me very happy with this image. It works for me on a bunch of levels. Thanks for liking it.