Welcome to (The Occasional) Photo Tip of the Day! Please also visit my main site jeffwignall.com. Text and photographs Copyright 2016 Jeff Wignall.



“The best way out is always through.”


Saturday, November 24, 2012

To Power Line or Not to Power Line

Normally when I'm out shooting photos I go out of my way to exclude things like power lines from landscape scenes, but in a way that kind of feels like I'm creating a false reality. Lately I've been hanging out with a friend, just taking drives around town and plunking shots with my little Olympus zoom camera (an Olympus UZ 810 with a 36x optical zoom) and I've been trying not to be too critical about what goes into the frame. Really all I want is a record of what the town looks like now, today, without trying to clean up the scenes too much. I shot this frame--power lines and all--as I walked into a beach-side cafe and literally just pointed at what I saw and shot--I made no effort to get rid of the power lines.

Of course, the picky perfectionist in me did walk a few more yards and I took some more shots without the lines, just to show this pretty little beach at twilight sans power lines or cottages. The shot (below) is cropped a bit differently, but the significant difference is just the lack of anything man made (other than the stone jetty). Is one better than the other? I kind of like the shot with the cottages and the power lines--the beach seems more lonely when you know that its inhabited, I think. And those power lines leading into the shot help to exaggerate that feeling. The second shot is quite a bit more blue partly because it was 10 minutes later, but largely because I Photoshopped them differently.
Note: My main site is down temporarily. I've taken my main site down temporarily because I wasn't happy with the hosting service. I'm looking for a new host and when I find one I like I'll create a brand new site. The old one was looking kind of dusty anyway. I'll keep you posted (a blogger's joke, arr arr).

4 comments:

Frank Kautz said...

Hi Jeff,

Sorry to hear about the site. Looking forward to seeing it again.

Interesting idea to leave the wires in, my wife says I am a pain when it comes to trying to move the wires out of a shot. If I cannot do it any other way, I end up photoshopping them out. I may try it occasionally.

Frank

Jeff Wignall said...

Frank Network Solutions is one of the worst companies I've every dealt with. They double bill, triple bill and then send you to Pakistan when you call them. It's like they are trying to drive customers away.

Frank Kautz said...

Hi Jeff,

Well, yes, they are. I keep my personal website with a company called PaOnline.com. I have been with them for nearly 20 years and they take very good care of me. The one time they did screw up, they not only refunded that month, they cut my bill in half for the next 24 months.

Frank

Jeff Wignall said...

I just switched to Fat Cow, we'll see how they do. jw