"Gates of Wonder"

"Gates of Wonder"
©David A. Ziser

This is another image from my little neighborhood photo walk the other day.  I was still shooting with the Sigma 85mm F1.4 lens at f1.4 to see what I could get.  I found it to be quite the challenge to get the result I wanted.  More importantly, I had to realize that I was out of my comfort zone with this assignment and WAS missing pretty many shots.

But that's the challenge with self assignments isn't it.  The experience just made me want to try harder to get the shot I wanted.  Practice makes perfect, as they say.  I think it behooves each of us to PRACTICE our craft if, indeed we want to prove our ART.

Anyway, back to this image. I just love the light to high key, mostly white tonalities, of the scene with just the one part of the gate in sharp focus. Look how everything else around it goes well out of focus leaving this one "soldier" all alone in the mist.

Notice too the rhythm of the composition, the easy curve of the lines running through the image, even with most of the lines out of focus.  But still being out of focus, it adds a nice harmony to the overall composition.

Yes, I tweaked the tonalities just a bit in Lightroom 3 and even considered converting the image to B&W, but it was mostly white anyway, I decided to keep the color rendition.

Camera specs: Canon 7D fitted with Sigma 85mm F1.4 lens at F1.4, 1/250 second, ISO 200.  Enjoy!  -David