Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Inspired by Jon and Charlene



I was over at Chimeric Daydreams again and Jon has once again managed to distract me from my appointed daily tasks. This time he pointed me in the direction of Charlene's photo blog and that distraction caused me to revisit some photos I had taken the other day to see if I could do something artistic with them.

I am sure that Jon and Charlene could really make something of this little shack that is actually an active business in my town. I had my eye on photographing it for months because it has so much character. I wish it wasn't in an ally so that I could get it better in the morning light.

What do you guys think: do you like it better in black and white or in color? In both of them I increased the contrast, and in the color one I increased the red saturation.

8 comments:

Irene said...

I am normally a big fan of black and white photography but in this case I vote for the color photo. It seems to have more depth and the black and white does not have enough contrast between the black and the white colors.

Many, many years ago (probably in the 70's) I had a real nice SLR camera and would shoot black and white. While I was on vacation in Yosemite I took a class in photography that was offered by the Ansel Adams Gallery up there. It was a whole lot of fun including getting up before dawn so we could capture the sun raising over the mountains at just the right moment. Fun times.

UGN said...

Yeah, I had an SLR (Canon AE-1) that I got in 78--still do, in fact, but it has a light leak I need to get fixed. What a neat thing to have taken that class at Yosemite. Do you have any of those pictures you could throw up on the web?

Irene said...

My camera is broken too so I just use a little Sony digital now. Nothing fancy.

I wish I knew where those pictures are now. Back then I didn't know anything about preservation and I think the last time I saw them they were all faded. I'll take a look but I don't hold out much hope.

UGN said...

Yeah, I have a bunch I took in high school photography class and I wish I knew where they were. I am positive that they are not anywhere in my house.

jon said...

I love this photo and particularly the color one. Try futzing with the contrast only, intensifying it will make such a bold angle even more dramatic!! Any one else would have tried to take a straight on door picture but you took it "key"stone. :)

UGN said...

Ok! I will try what you said. Thanks for the tip; I really appreciate it.
I think I would have taken it straight on, except I was too lazy to squat all the way down on my knees and line it up that way and then I thought, "I bet Jon would take it crooked."

jon said...

Dude.. then you know me too well, cause i do like it crooked. It rocks, I was immediately envious. :D

avoidance said...

6 months too late (i just came across this!). I vote the color one along with everyone else. There are few enough colors for them to make an impact. Add a slight sepia tinge, some vignetting, and whalla your vintage shot...

Ok but that's just me, i'm obsessed with vignetting at the moment. Thanks for the massive compliment, i'm very flattered :)