Winter’s Flight is pretty much done. . .

This jet trail dominated our wintry sky, the other day, and begged a foreground to make it work. Daylight leaving at jet speed, I chose the first vantage point I could find, and was fortunate to find three elements I liked for it.. the view of the expanse of sky, the hard lines and contrasts of the parking lot lights, and the bare trees.. the Birds were an absolute bonus. I would have waited another few seconds, for the car at bottom to leave, but was rudely interrupted by someone behind me who didn’t know what I was up to, and therefore just thought I was daydreaming or something.. this in a parking lot that had other exits besides mine, but.. OhWell.
I did have time to bracket for HDR combining, and though I chose not to open up the shadows so much, since most of what was on the ground wasn’t key to this photo, I think the image benifits from the HDR treatment. I used a trial version of Unified Color’s HDR Studio 2. ( www.unifiedcolor.com/ )

Talkin’ Photowalkin’

In the crisp winter, between Scott Kelby’s two wussy Photowalks, a couple of flickr friends and I did our own… in the bleak midwinter.
CyclopsNC
Slideshow of that walk.

My set from Kelby’s WorldWide Photowalk.

Recently, though, members of two different local groups I am active with participated in Scott’s second World Wide Photowalk.

I entered the maximum two entries, and that’s done. I needed to choose between two different versions of a candid portrait of a man I met sitting on a mall bench on Fayetteville Street. Maybe I was the wuss that time; I chose the image that was the preferred treatment of the opportunity, based on a query I made of other photographers (all skill levels). Their preference was to use the simpler version, better isolated from the downtown environment around him, and filling the frame.
Robert Sings

I still can’t shake the feeling, though, that I find the other version preferable, in that it puts him in context, true to my impression of what a downtown photowalk might be. I like the fact that it includes the “distracting elements” found objectionable by those who responded to my query. It’s not a “better picture”, but it is a different picture –one which is an authentic impression of my time and place and interpretation of Photowalk Raleigh NC. Thus:
Robert Sings

Since I don’t mind being disagreed with, chime in, if you want.