Here is the photo I referenced in my previous post “Peaceful time on Earth” dated 4.4.07. This photo was judged pretty much as the “worst photo of the Pictorial competition” that night.
I’m fine with that since I also won the first prize :-)) (and because I don’t take anything personally anymore, well, almost).
The original shot was taken late at night on a parking lot in Palo Alto after the rain damped the all place, with water and oil trying to mix each other (they should know by now that they can’t get along). This is typically the kind of shot that I would delete pretty quickly, if not directly from the camera, within Google Picasa which I use to manage my photos.
Nikon D50 • Nikkor 18-70 • 35 mm • 1/50s • f/4.1
2.9.2007 18:00PM
Pretty bad, heh? Just before deleting it, I decided to open it in PhotoShop and see if by pushing some buttons all the way to the left or to the right (who really knows which direction does what?) something interesting will happen.
Well, by dramatically increasing its color saturation, pushing a bit the brightness, and shifting the color range, I found myself pleased with the result (I also added a shallow vignetting effect):
What do I find interesting? I like the strong graphical impact both on the colors and the composition fronts. This is a natural image designed by pollution, a sign of our time. I like the contrast between the aesthetic of the message and the aesthetic of the support, pollution versus visual formation.Yet, I find that they help each other articulate a message that’s one. The color range for example symbolizes earth (green and brown), fire, and water (the blue spot). The interaction between the color bands represents the disturbed balance between nature and the peril it faces. The fluid shapes express the “bleeding of our western society”, bleeding a rainbow of wastes.
Here is a close-up view of the top-left section:
The detail shows a rich 3D texture, painting-like, with sparkling gold reflexions.
I like my abstract picture (judged the worst photo of that pictorial competition), more than my waterfall “Peaceful time on Earth” (first prize of that same competition).