I hope the viewers who have enjoyed my flower photos don’t feel alienated as I go about my 365 adventure. Flowers and nature are just a small part of what I like to photograph. As I have mentioned in the past, I can’t really nail exactly what my photographic style is. I know I don’t fit exclusively in standard categories like street, landscape, portrait, sports, or travel photographer. I like to dabble in those realms along with abstract (a personal challenge of mine), urban, documentary, and humor. I like color and black and white equally as well. Some photos I do very little post-processing on and some I go wild with. I think post-processing is half of the equation when it comes to digital photography. All digital photos, in my opinion, benefit greatly with proper processing. The end result is what I am concerned with. I am not afraid to add texture layers to make more of a “painterly” image if I feel the subject justifies it. I am a “purist” in the sense that I respect the craft of photography but not in the fact that I have to accept the out of camera image as final. This isn’t film, it’s digital. A new purity?
Now for the photo. The weather basically put a damper on work for the day (and the weekend 🙂 ). After a few meetings on the job site and enjoying a lunch with a co-worker, I headed for home early. The area I had lunch at has a number of older, colorful buildings with interesting architecture. The buildings are worn and aged instead of faithfully restored which I find quite interesting. As I explored a few blocks looking for something of interest I saw this sort of “graffiti face” on a closed storefront window. I liked how it contrasted with the colorful buildings reflected in the glass. Ghost-like, floating. After shooting a few more building details and getting ready to head out of town, I remembered an overlook in the area that I really haven’t been to since I was a teenager (a looong time ago). It is a concrete structure high on a hill that overlooks the city of Wheeling. It was a gray rainy day so I didn’t expect much for any grand vistas but I thought it may offer an interesting perspective. When I arrived at the overlook I was actually surprised to see the structure covered with colorful graffiti. I’m not a fan of graffiti, especially in public spaces but this time it created a nice color element. There were some other people there with cameras trying to photograph the view and they looked at me kind of strange as I was photographing, not the view, but the viewing platform! I get looked at a lot. This was one of those shots where I would have benefited from a wider angle lens. I work with a minimal amount of gear and it’s fine for about 90% of what I shoot but someday I would like to add wider angle and macro lenses to round out my kit. Finally I’m just throwing in a black and white photo of a door that I just kind of like for some reason. It’s all about the texture. Pentax K20D, DA55-300, DA17-70.
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Yikes!
© David Guidas
What I Pic 
pestonez reblogged this on pestonez.
Well, I have a clean spot to leave a comment. It was nice to see you got some time in the lime light. I found it ironic that it was on a day without your signature texture highlights. I really enjoyed the tractor image, the shadows and lines and atmosphere were really great. Then you followed it up with a really great cemetery shot, great stuff as usual. Your first image today actually had me laughing out loud, good stuff.
So… you head into your final 100 days and get some good exposure. I’m really looking forward to what you will start shooting after this 365 project wraps up. My brother and I are doing our weekly thing and it’s about all I can handle right now. I’ve been pretty impressed by the consistent quality of your images on a daily basis. You are pretty hard on yourself. I actually was enjoying your work prior to getting freshly pressed, and it was kind of amusing reading your extra comments the last couple of days.
Oh, almost forgot to ask. Was the angle of your second image inspired by M C Escher, or just a coincidence?
Thanks Nathan. Yeah it was pretty crazy for a couple days but I’m sure I’ll go back to hearing crickets real soon 🙂 I got kind of frantic when I didn’t have a good followup but the cemetery, which is an extremely cool place that I need to revisit, came through. I’m a big Escher fan and didn’t think that but thanks for the comparison. I took a bit of a risk on that shot by standing on a wall. Not bad until you look through the viewfinder.
Very cool photos, David! You have a great eye to notice the face and reflection and how it would look in a photo. I completely agree about post processing. And I love to add textures. Sometimes they change everything for the better.
Thank you Karen. One thing I have learned this year is to look for photos in unlikely places. Seeing how things line up, sometimes in small places, and the relationship of the elements within the photo. Trying to spot all of that while walking or driving down the road is a bit crazy at times though.
Love the graffiti stairwell!
Thanks. It was one of those nice finds!