At 2:49 PM -0400 9/9/02, Gregory Fraser wrote: >Alan P. Hayes (Burning Bush) - This past week I have been trying to >understand your images. This one appears to be rather simple >technically speaking (and I may very well be way off on that) and it >looks similar to many of the images you have entered in the gallery. >Then there are the technically very complex images like your family >self portrait. The two seem to be opposite ends of some spectrum. >This image reminds me of a night shot of some large predator with >glowing eyes. Perhaps its the red sign warning me to stop. What >feeling or impression do you get from this image Alan? I guess that the title is an indicator of what this picture evokes for me-a burning bush-a flaming sword-a fiery phenomenon encountered in the night. I have a number of these pictures of signs at night and one feeling I get strongly is that they are *signs* in a metaphorical sense, beyond the mundane. As I got seriously involved in taking these road pictures, I realized there was a documentary aspect to them. I wanted to show what driving around in cars looked and felt like. I also began to see beauty and wonder in the essentially banal experience of the road seen not as a means to an end, but as a place in itself. A large portion of them seem to be about the fear and exhilaration and wonder of the experience of hurtling around in cars. This image is actually pretty thoroughly manipulated, mostly in an attempt to deal with the incredibly noisy background I'm stuck with in low light situations with the Coolpix 800. Here's a URL with the image as presented and as it came from the camera: <http://meaningandform.com/photography/photoforum/burningbush.html> I also desaturated everything but the reflecting portions of the signs. This picture was taken at about 11pm by simply driving up to the signs and, with the car pointing pretty directly at them, using the headlights to take a 2.5 second exposure of the intersection. I've since discovered that the flash will work through the windshield, as long as you are not shooting straight on. The reflections from the windshield tend to overwhelm what's outside in that case. Safety note: I only do some of these things like the flash in the dead of night on deserted country roads while stopped! Thanks for the review, Greg. -- Alan P. Hayes Pittsfield, Massachusetts <http://www.meaningandform.com/photography> <mailto:ahayes@berkshire.rr.com>
