[Technically, this was not written on the proper day, since I was trying to login to write this one when I discovered the problems with the site that destroyed the entire day, but we’ll just gaslight ourselves into believing it was and history will never be the wiser.]
It’s an interesting holiday today, with a fascinating history that I strongly suggest you check out, since it’s too convoluted to go into here, but it’s Dark And Moody Day, and so, we have some photos that were specifically chosen to fit in with this holiday and not at all contrived.
You may recall my mentioning the ‘Haunted Tree’ on the property, though at the time I had no good illustrations of it, but I set out to remedy this because you all deserve it, for all the support you provide. First off, during an lightly overcast day:
I mean, you can see why we call it that, right? This is the arboreal equivalent of that old gothic house on the moors, even in this light, with the vines and Spanish moss and that convoluted trunk and knees. If a tree was going to be haunted, it would be this one.
But I couldn’t leave it at that, and tackled it last night by moonlight.
Hard as it may be to believe, this brought out a bit more color, without reducing the idea that if you got too close it might clutch at you. There are a lot of bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) trees on the property, but this one has the most character. If you want to call it that.
And then, while the tripod was set up, I did a version illuminated primarily by the headlamp.
I was trying to get it a little more evenly illuminated and not produce this spotlit effect, and so will perhaps try again later, but now the ‘arms’ or ‘tendrils’ or whatever are more apparent. Funny how the differences in lighting produce different impressions, though none of them particularly inviting.
While working on the monochrome post from a week ago, I pulled several older photos to mess with, and this one didn’t make the video but still deserved a little attention, and since I knew the holiday was approaching, it could serve its purpose for that.
Very muted, all clustered around the midtones without distinct highlights or shadows, seeming to drift out of the smoke – it’s funny how I get the impression that the leaves at lower left are semi-transparent and bleeding through one another, even though this really isn’t the case. But then I converted it to monochrome and boosted the dynamic range to just barely get it from full white to full black:
Still impressionistic, though a little bolder, but also a little confusing now. Suggestive, in many ways, and I suspect it would hit different people with different ideas.
And then I wondered how it would look if I kept it in color but still boosted the dynamic range to the edges. It would look like this:
Richer, certainly, but more pleasant? Still doesn’t strike me as a print, but perhaps an illustration for a specific purpose (a dark and moody one.) Something to point out here, but while I don’t recall the circumstances or conditions of this image, I don’t believe the smokey aspect most visible on the right is silt or sediment, but actually the reflection of the clouded sky from the surface of the water, which is part of what gives it the layers that it has. A cool rediscovery.
And two more for the holiday.
The original was a weird color, since the old style mercury pressure lamps that used to be used everywhere as streetlights was the main light source, and their color spectrum is very odd: to our eyes, the appeared a bit blue-ish, but when captured on either film or digital sensors, they went distinctly green, and I don’t pretend to know why this is. The very thin fog is what produced the rays, and I was smart enough to position myself so the direct glare from the light was blocked. Plenty suggestive, but again, ‘of what’ is probably plenty subjective as well.
And finally,
Perhaps not quite as spooky as some of the others at least, this still has its elements, though a mixed bag. You didn’t miss the heron down there, did you? But what strikes me right now is, the waters produced a nice rippled effect and not at all the soft haze that I would have expected from the 10-second exposure, where they all should have blended together. Had that occurred, it might have been mistaken for low-lying fog or something. Overall, just enough light to make details distinct throughout, while remaining dark and a bit foreboding. A lucky capture, or more specifically (since I was trying for something along these lines,) a lucky guess at the exposure needed.
There – a nice celebration of the holiday and not at all a desperate attempt to squeeze one out for March since I’d been neglecting the idea all month. Cheers! (Or, well, a more appropriate salutation…)