Ruins. December 11, 2011
Posted by littlebangtheory in Love and Death.Tags: B&W photography, Factories, tilt-shift photography, Turners Falls
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In the Great Southwest, they have Spanish mission churches with their roofs collapsed, ghost towns with their tumbleweeds, corrals overgrown with cacti. They make compelling images for photographers who can get there.
But I’m not there; I’m here in New England, where the ruins of the industrial Gold Rush pock the landscape, bleak and beautiful in their fall from grace.
The walls of a former factory in Turners Falls stand defiantly in the last light of day:
This was a collaboration between Elliot, who contributed considerable “shift” to turn the vanishing-point-effect into a statement of this structure’s weight, and Photoshop’s ability to convert an image to black and white and emphasize portions of the color spectrum. The skies were sub-optimal but still worth pushing the button.
To avoid signs and fences, I cropped this to a 4X5 aspect ratio (is that what the Big Boys call it?) I would have climbed atop my vehicle and simplified the process, but I was on a one-lane, one-way bridge and didn’t think that was the polite thing to do.
This is a venue I hope to return to a little earlier in the day, when the skies have something more to say and this north-facing facade has a bit more light on it.
Little Bang Theory 
Sweet.
Cuz, you’re faster than my final edits! 🙂
I can’t really express what it means to me that you still notice my efforts. I’m excited about becoming more of a photographer as time goes by, but at the same time have trepidations about not being the same simple dude you connected with lo those many posts ago. I’ve strayed a long way from the political rants, but hold onto the appreciation of nature, which I think may have been our original point of contact.
I miss your blog posts (not being a Faceguy) but life goes on. I hope everything is going well for you, down there in the warmer climes.
“Hi” to Jen and the grrrrls. I bet they wrrrock!
As I’ve tole ya afore, I love both your political and photographic posts. They’re both excellent, and neither suffers from a dearth of the other.
In other words, you post and I’ll like. 🙂
(also, I’ve got the box checked on your blog that gives me an email notification of a new post, is why I’m often so fast.)
I love everything about this.
It’s a magnificent image.
Ladies, thank you both. I almost didn’t push the button on this one, as the light sucked and there was so much visual “traffic.” But something told me to Just Do It and see what I could wring from it later.
I’m glad I listened to that latter voice, as the image was entirely salvageable, though not classically excellent.