Yesterday morning I woke to some heavy coastal fog and since I had to drive down to San Diego to pick-up some family at the airport, I realized that this might be a win-win opportunity. There is a Vista Point on the south-bound I-5 that I am familiar with on my route and I was wondering what these foggy conditions might provide in the way of a photo-op.
So I left early enough to afford a brief visit to check out what might be interesting. Pictured above is a gated access to the U.S. Marine base at Camp Pendleton, but as usually, it was chained and locked. Not that I wanted to venture in to this area as this low gate would not have prevented me from my hopping over, but it is the gate as an aging barrier that was of interest to me. This gate was once painted bright yellow and what remains now is a patchwork of various shades of yellow, but I was pre-visualizing this photograph in black and white, more of a conceptual place than a literal document.
This photograph did require some timing and a couple of exposures to obtain what I had in mind, as just beyond the hedge and fencing is the freeway and any 18-wheeler truck/trailer barreling down this freeway are plainly visible. I wanted an image that appeared more empty and forlorn, perhaps elicit a more melancholy effect in conjunction with the slightly overcast conditions.
Most of the visual effects, such as transitioning from color to black & white, were created in camera, then posted on IG yesterday afternoon and now in the studio, I have a chance to tweak the image a bit more with Bridge/RAW and Photoshop. All in all, I find this as an interesting singular image with some potential metaphoric potentials. I do not have any other series in progress that this photograph could be incorporated with at the moment.
Cheers,
Doug
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Book workshop:
I will be leading a Creative Photo Book workshop with the Southeast Center of Photography (SEC4P) later in the Fall of this year. This will be a virtual event on Zoom; November 6 & 7th and 13 & 14th, 2021, 10 AM – 1 PM, EDT (3 hour session each day, with a week between the weekend sessions to work your book-dummy). Registration is now open, and there is a SEC4P membership discount. Just advised that it is two-thirds sold out (3 spots left) SOLD OUT & wait-list has been started. Let me know if you have any questions!
Developing a Creative Photo Book, a virtual (Zoom) workshop I will be leading again in conjunction with Medium Photo with New dates: March 5 – 6, 12 – 13, 2022 More details and sign-up available now at Medium Photo.
Singular Images 