Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Collinsville


PHOTOGRAPHER'S DIARY: I think it may have been photographer John Shaw who wrote that the best shooting often happens at the transitions: night to day. summer to fall, fair to foul. Spring has been fully unfurled for at least a week now; the transition is over here in Connecticut. The fragile textures of first budding are gone, red leaves have reached their full green, and I have lost the urge to catch every moment of the unfurling. It is an excellent time to revisit past photos.

In mid March I posted five shots of the factories at Collinsville. My preference then was for shots that abstracted elements rather than shots which sought to embrace some significant portion of the whole. I confess that I prefer the open-endedness and suggestiveness of those shots to the directness of this. That doesn't lessen the difficulty in this of positioning my lens to properly overlay foreground on background. I remember the odd way I was compelled to position my tripod and subsequently my head to get it all composed. Never-the-less, I was pleased to give this commonly photographed face of the factories a bit of a twist by shooting through the structure that protects the old engines that used to power some of the locks, and I was delighted when the wind calmed enough to let the water reflect the facades crisply. In retrospect, I've decided to post this one too. I'm happy to think some of you will even prefer it.

You can view the earlier shots at the following links:
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
Water Power
In Time
Concourses of Time
Namelessness

Photo blog: http://rothphotos.blogspot.com/