The Art of Architectural Photography: Visiting an Old Friend

Recently I posted The Flame Tree, a photograph I created a decade ago.  The mainly sepia landscape with an autumn blaze of colored leaves was designed and enhanced in post production.  It has been licensed for poster art and also reproduced as greeting cards, and while I've seen my photograph throughout the years, I am always surprised when I come across it again.

The image was shot in RGB (color) and softened to a dreamy sepia for the mood I wished to express.  The pop of colorful foliage marks my love of the fall season and evokes several marvelous occasions when I found myself on a quiet, misty lake with a lone beautiful tree.  Chancing on such a spot always nourishes my creativity and spirit.  I deliberately down played the background while accentuating the tree, yet it was a task to impart some significance to the complete composition.  Somehow, it came together to form the image I envisioned. I picked up a lot of skills and information while crafting the effect I was seeking in the photograph.

In revisiting photographs, such as The Flame Tree, I may feel as though I've succeeded in expressing that which I envisioned.  I am always, in viewing my work, prompted to think about the process of creating the photograph.  There have been a few images that were simply point-and-shoot photos: lucky shots.  Others require a good deal of effort.  There are those images that take so long to complete that I can't believe the amount of time I have spent on one photograph: Birch River, is 65+Gs and is saved on about 35 disks!  Are the photographs any the more or less for the labor and thought that went into them?  Not really.  If I've communicated an idea, a place or a feeling then it matters not the process to get the image right; only to me, perhaps, is the actual creative journey meaningful.  The learning and the work that goes into my photography brings me much closer to it.  I develop a connection with my work as I explore what the Raw image offers me.  When I complete a work, I feel as if I know it well.

And so, in posting The Flame Tree I had an opportunity to share an old friend with any who would like to take part in my experience of that time in autumn and my glad surprise of the flash of color on a misty day. 

A few of my photographs I'd like to share that are reminiscent of autumn, my favorite season:

Newport, RI: sepia photography

Queenstown, NZ: color photography

Sugar Hill, NH: color photography

Newport, RI: black and white photography with color

The Flame Tree: sepia photography with color