Eliot Crowley

Two to three times a week I like to take a walk through a place called Hale Park here in Santa Barbara. It is an undeveloped piece of open land but it gets tons of use. People with dogs can let them run free. Frequently people are using the park. I’ve seen a father and son playing with plastic army men, another time someone set up a hammock and was sleeping in it while his/her dog kept watch. It is a well-worn path I follow through the park. At the top of the trail, it is quite steep, and I have taken to carrying a collapsible walking stick to help keep my footing on the loose dirt of the slope. This day I stumbled across a doll abandoned on a tree stump. I had to pull out my trusty iPhone and make the shot.

This is a completely manufactured photo. Well not completely but mostly. I scanned the leaf from a Sycamore tree multiple times using different settings to create the flat leaf. In Photoshop, I selected the leaf using select subject, created that mask on a black layer giving me an exact shadow of the leaf. Moving that shadow into a position I liked gives the three-dimensional look I was hoping for. The pure black was just too much, so that had to be drawn back only a little to make it look natural, as though the leaf was only inches away from a pure white background. I deliberately cropped it in very tight to create some tension and force the viewer into the frame.

Late afternoon winter light streams into the west facing doors of our bedroom. This is a study in textures, and shapes, lines, and shadows. No intended narrative, however, there is a distinctive cross shape made by the door’s framing. A classic piece of symbolism. You can draw your own conclusions.

Christmas is a tough time of year for many people. I’m one of those. Making a photograph that suggests no to Christmas has been part of my Xmas spirit over the years. This time I thought, what about a tree that is bundled and yet left out. This tree found its way around my hometown of Santa Barbara. Traveling around in the back of my truck it found itself near the Mission, on the beach, and different parts in between. This was my favorite. It was neat, abandoned, and just a little dirty, perfect.

Lots of rules in play here. Lower left third works for the green plant. Upper full third has lots of interest, and the negative space is full of texture. Color contrast. No narrative.

Visiting the Whitney Museum in New York City there is a treasure trove of images to see and make. The architectural square doorway and the square painting displayed through the mirrored frame caught my attention. Each room has a monitor or person there to make sure you don’t do anything to the art except look at it. To finish the story, to suggest a narrative, to add a human element, was the bonus. The chap assigned to this room stood perfectly against the wall, so still, as though to make it easy for me. Multiple exposures allowed me to eliminate all the other visitors that couldn’t seem to get out of my picture

Looking for oddities is always interesting. This fence was near another building I was making photos of. Walking around the corner revealed this gem. I drove by there a week later and that fence was white. But today it was this wonderful green. Matching that with the orange cones and other shapes of color and it was irresistible. Just as I was waiting for another car to go by and get out of my frame a bird landed on one of the cones…. I know.

I visited Studio 1923 in downtown Los Angeles the other day. It is a long skinny room with windows on both of the long sides. You can look right at the Santa Monica freeway going by this window, it faces south. To block off the direct light in cases when a photographer might not want that, the owner has installed these blackout curtains. When not in use, like today’s visit, they just hang there. This is a cool space.

I’m always drawn to reflections. This building is close to the Hudson River in Manhattan, I was on a boat, it was near sunset. It is just natural to push the button.

On a recent visit to New York, I stayed at the Maritime Hotel. The only reason I can figure why they call it the Maritime is because all the windows are round like port holes. Unusual for sure. Add in the matching table and colorful chairs with the word Manhattan written on them and how could I refuse but to take the shot. Since I was restricted by my lens, and the size of the room, I had to photograph it in sections, anticipating using Lightroom’s ability to stitch them together. After that, in Photoshop, I employed Generative fill to remove items that just seemed distracting. Like there was a small piece of the bed left after the panoramic was finished. This new way Adobe has made for easy and quick replacement or removal is nice. I have never really tasked it with anything until now. Simple.