PHOTOGRAPHER'S DIARY: Act I, scene 1; action: After leaving the October orchard I hiked back down the hill to my car which I had left near Misty Morning Farm. I wasn't expecting to find the proscenium framed with swags and the stage set, as if awaiting players. Jane wanted to call this, "Pyramis and Thisbe." I prefer, "Owls 'n' Elves." I recall someone said, "The play's the thing." Since the viewer must supply the play, the title is also yours to invent. I stick with, "Owls 'n' Elves."
This photo had little processing. Here is a case where the use of HDR would spoil the mystery. I could have revealed considerably more of the dark forest, even from my single image. I chose to raise shadow tones only very slightly. If our monitors are similarly calibrated, when you look beneath the background arch on the left, you should be just barely able to distinguish the suggestion of deep forest. Even now I wonder if I shouldn't reveal a bit more shadow detail. If this photo had included sky, it would have needed HDR to encompass the full tonal spectrum.
But hush! Somewhere, in the darkness at the back, the first player has just entered left. Let the play begin. ...
2 comments:
Wow, so mysterious I like it a lot, I can almost see the elves.
It was a complete surprise when I saw it and even a bigger surprise when I saw the images I too. Sadly, I wind up with a lot of lovely "frames" with no event. Most of these I toss because, in the words of Gertrude Stein, "there's no there there." Hopefully, this one is far enough over the edge that it works. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
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