Fortnightly Challenge - Nov 20 thru Dec 3 - Topic: Culture/Lighting

[deep diver]

Don't have much to contribute on the culture side, but I thought this was a good example of lighting. Like LumbermanSVO, I'm new to this forum and have posted a few pictures around in the last few days.

Here was one of my first pictures I took, and it's from my rooftop in Midtown Manhattan. Overlooking the Lincoln Tunnel.

I grew up in Philadelphia and we often went to NY. When we got to the tunnels we would tell our baby sister to hold her nose. We were, after all, going under water.

This is another image with good potential but no clear focus. Doing this in B&W was good. I think it would not have worked in color. The framing is too wide. There is so much going on that my eye cannot find a place to go. The background certainly reflects the energy of the city (whether you see that energy as exciting or as chaos). The interchange and tunnel entrance make an interesting composition. There is a certain grace and flow to the ramps. I do not particularly like crowed places so the ramps and tunnel are more appealing to me. I cropped the image to get a better focus and flow, and I lightened the shadows to create some sense of depth.

 

[mtbdudex]

There is a Tibetan legend of Wisdom defeating Yama, the god of death. Chicago's Field Museum has a wooden sculpture commemorating this legend. This is part of the base.

btw;
what I like about this assignment is the little snippet by the poster.
I'm learning and feel like I'm in humanities course again.

Thx everyone for sharing and enhancing my experience, both visually and mentally.


deep diver, Good cropping on the NYC.

 

[georgemann]

Cambodian Gas Stations

What an incredible cultural story - these areas are a dying breed - all for the sake of progress.

I'd love to see more of the surrounding garage - the people - the culture. Have you got more?

---

That is pretty much the entire business in this particular location, but I do of course have more. I will work on putting together a story using this theme.

George

Nikon Digital Photographer - http://nikondp.com

 

[Designer Dale]

btw;
what I like about this assignment is the little snippet by the poster.
I'm learning and feel like I'm in humanities course again.
...

You are. To check your progress, click below......

Dinah at work With apologies to Phrasikleia...

Dale

 

[mtbdudex]

This "Cultural moment" happened in China May-2005. I was on a 2 week business trip and in China many drove on the "wrong side" of the street like you see here.
I had my Mini-DV camcorder so took a crappy image via it from backseat. Still, there was no "chaos" per say, just when the traffic coming head onto you at last minute you tried to swerve into the "correct" lane.

Form this I learned about "order in chaos". I saw zero accidents in 2 weeks.
Nobody honked horns or cussed people out like here in states. If there was open traffic lanes why not use them?

So, which is the correct side of the road to drive on in China?

 

[Chappers]

The distortion is minor but enough to be distracting. It's possible that many/most people would not see it, but I've got this visual/spacial thing. It makes my wife nuts.

I knew it was there but- I shot several shots of the department to go on a pictograph of governmental/departmental guidelines - I included an edited version of the photo for the finished product but couldn't find it to include here. So for the sake of some on-going editing - here we go.

 

[Chappers]

Road culture - these sheep are being led up a motorway/expressway entrance road. I was going to get out of the car to get a better shot but the sheep dogs they use are not to be argued with and will attack anything they see as a threat. I was advised to stay in the car.
And yes they were herded down what we Brits call the hard shoulder of the motorway right next to 4 lanes of speeding car, lorries etc.

]

 

[deep diver]

The "Kano Knot" design gets its name from Kano State in northern Nigeria. This design, which symbolizes endless searching, originated in that area during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

 

[Chappers]

The "Kano Knot" design gets its name from Kano State in northern Nigeria. This design, which symbolizes endless searching, originated in that area during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

What a fascinating design. I could see many a lost soul using this as a tattoo. Where is this - what is it attached too? I wouldn't change it but I'd like to see more of where it is and how its presented.

 

[deep diver]

What a fascinating design. I could see many a lost soul using this as a tattoo. Where is this - what is it attached too? I wouldn't change it but I'd like to see more of where it is and how its presented.

This is a museum piece from Chicago's Field Museum (named for its founder and not the fact that it is a natural history museum). I do not think this is an authentic artifact. It is part of a "touch me" exhibit. It is displayed in the museum simply as a large brick.

This other example is a silver plate, not dated, from Kano and attributed as Nupe/Hausa in origin. These are the indigenous people. This plate was made from 5-franc coins and then the knot pattern was embossed on top of that. It did not photograph well but you can make out the more stylized design. The design shows better in B&W. The plate is a rich brass color.

 

[deep diver]

I struggled with this one a bit. In every synagogue there will be a light left burning all of the time. It is in commemoration of the lamp that burned in the innermost part of the 1st and 2nd Temples in Jerusalem. This one is in my synagogue. I shot a couple exposing for the light and a couple exposing for the outside light. (There is a small wooded area behind those windows. Sorry Simon. )

The image on the left is to set the context. I decided that the final image had to emphasize the light itself.

 

[oblomow]

Small church in our neighbourhood. Light started to change, thunder & rain building up.
I'm not religious, but churches ( or mosques, blue mosque anyone?) make fascinating subjects.

 

[Designer Dale]

Road culture - these sheep are being led up a motorway/expressway entrance road. I was going to get out of the car to get a better shot but the sheep dogs they use are not to be argued with and will attack anything they see as a threat. I was advised to stay in the car.
And yes they were herded down what we Brits call the hard shoulder of the motorway right next to 4 lanes of speeding car, lorries etc.

]

This is an interesting photo. Either the sheep, the herder or his dogs are very will trained. I have always been interested in the differences between US and British terms for the same thing and did some research on "lorry". It seem that it was originally a horse-drawn rail car of sorts that was used to transport heavy loads short distances in the early 1900's. Broken down motor cars, ironically. With the development of the combustion engine and better paved streets, it was modified into a self-propelled vehicle that had tires to accommodate streets. I was unable to find out if it was "lorry" first and "truck" second, but I do know that lorry is British and Irish. Don't know about the Scots. Ask James bond.

Dale

 

[deep diver]

Small church in our neighbourhood. Light started to change, thunder & rain building up.
I'm not religious, but churches ( or mosques, blue mosque anyone?) make fascinating subjects.

The nice thing about digital is that we can fix many problems. That includes, at least sometimes, the weather. This shot has a lot of potential. The drab sky brings down everything, plus the picture looks just a touch underexposed. That can be fixed with some lighting adjustments. The steeple is a little lost behind too much foreground. That can be fixed with cropping.

I did this pretty quickly. It can be better but it shows what I'm talking about.

 

[mtbdudex]

I snapped this while shooting the camcorder, slight PP what I could to enhance it.

I was in Austria Sep-2005, business trip.
My host took us to this fantastic local restaurant, and this couple were celebrating their wedding rehearsal dinner next to us.

I can still hear the sounds of the instruments, the older gentlemen going with the music at the table end.
I felt like I experienced Austrian culture in unique way because of this.

This photo is culture/lighting, not photo quality/etc.

Here is a short video clip, I can taste the beer now watching this again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuQqjCzDDfM

 

[Designer Dale]

After my parents memorial in 1995, we sorted out their "photo album"-a box that was in a bedroom nightstand for as long as I remember sneaking in my parent's room looking for Christmas packages-and found this.

I am Irish, French and Pennsylvania Dutch. The Irish is on my dad's side of the family and the French and Pennsylvania Dutch is on my mom's. Pennsylvania Dutch folks are of German descent and compose the Amish religion/culture. My mother's place of birth is listed as "Amish country, Pennsylvania" on family records.

None of us were able to identify any of the people in this photo, but I believe the woman on the far right is my Grandmother. My mom was born is 1912, so she could be my Great-Grandmother. My grandparents on my mother's side were George and Sara LaRue. Don't ask what an Amish girl was doing running around with a Frenchman...

The photo is a print mounted on a worn sheet of cardboard and has quite a bit of surface damage that I did my best to remove in PhotoShop. When working over this at a high level of magnification I noted that the date, which was in the lower left, read backwards. I flipped the canvas to correct it. It reads 2-4. February 4 or February '04? The European dating scheme puts the year first followed by month and day, so it could be April 2nd. or April '02. Could just be 2 of 4. It has to be a contact print and could be from a glass negative. I would love to know, but will have to be satisfied with this print.

Dale

 

[deep diver]

After my parents memorial in 1995, we sorted out their "photo album"-a box that was in a bedroom nightstand for as long as I remember sneaking in my parent's room looking for Christmas packages-and found this.
Dale

A great image and beautiful story. I grew up in Philadelphia and spent many, many weekends visiting Lancaster Co. Once you get away from the highways, the area still feels the same as this picture.

Thank you for sharing this.

 

[deep diver]

This is the end cap of a Han Dynasty roof tile. This tile would have been part of the lowest course of tiles with the disk protecting the eaves. The four characters read "long life without end."

This is not the real color of the artifact which is really a very drab grey clay. It looks better with this warmer tone.

 

[Chappers]

It was hot - very hot (56C - 133 F) so when you climb 2/3 of the way up a big dish in the sun - expect to suffer. We struggled to walk down.

Ephesus in the sun - you need to carry a lot of water. We had to call our driver to come and pick us up as we limped out as if we'd been in the desert for a week, not a couple of hours.

 

[someoldguy]

Masai village and Chief , somewhere in Tanzania . Crappy scans from film , took these 4-5 years back right before I got my 5D.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

It is telling of the true nature of our American culture when there are homeless left to wander the streets alone while everyone else is safely inside feasting.

I shot this on thanksgiving evening in the Downtown area of my city.

SLC

 

[Chappers]

Masai village and Chief , somewhere in Tanzania . Crappy scans from film , took these 4-5 years back right before I got my 5D.

A little tweaking and hopefully improved things - nice shots - I just played with one.

It is telling of the true nature of our American culture when there are homeless left to wander the streets alone while everyone else is safely inside feasting.

I shot this on thanksgiving evening in the Downtown area of my city.

SLC

Great Photo.

 

[deep diver]

It was hot - very hot (56C - 133 F) so when you climb 2/3 of the way up a big dish in the sun - expect to suffer. We struggled to walk down.

Before I read your caption I thought this was a site in norther Israel. The is an almost identical amphitheater that is also still used.

It is telling of the true nature of our American culture when there are homeless left to wander the streets alone while everyone else is safely inside feasting.

I shot this on thanksgiving evening in the Downtown area of my city.

Outstanding commentary. There is an image from on of the POTW contests that is equally powerful: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7387472#post7387472


I really like what we are doing with this thread - teaching with our images.

 

[someoldguy]

CHAPPERS: thanks for fixing up the old guy ,he looks much better . One of my pending winter jobs is to start doing good scans of 30+ years of negatives and 'chromes using a Nikon Coolscan V . Incidentally , the chief was around 70 when I was there , he has something like 14 wives , ranging in age from what looked like around 15 up to what looked like 132 . Also had 42 kids or thereabouts . Some of his sons are in the background. Here's what inside of one of the houses looks like:

Always a fire going to keep bugs out . The sleeping areas are cowhides strung over a framework. There's 2 , one on each side of the stick wall on the right.
The building is branches with a covering of cowhide and dried cattle dung . Can't imagine what it's like in the rainy season . Anyway , makes you feel glad for what you've got .

 

[Designer Dale]

Hi, Folks. In the middle of this obviously old photo I posted is a rather neat pile of tubing/pipe of uniform sizes that seem out of place. Concrete drain pipe? Any input?

Dale

Dale