Knight Rise

This is how my thought process went on this shot.  While out walking and looking I eventually see something I want to raise my camera too. Here inside the James Turrell, “Knight Rise”, an environmental piece, I experienced geometric shapes, and a very large tonal range of light, thus a few captures were made. Horizontal, Vertical, people, no people, some Beam, no Beam.   During shooting I eventually see the image printed in my mind, which is when I decide to move on.  But while processing the image my mind is thinking more about the meaning rather than the composition. First as always I did the usual Levels for end point placement, curves for mid tone contrast, WB, Selective color, etc.  I then wanted to add more detail to the image with a high structured  B&W luminosity layer.  I thought about the words “heaven” for the walls and earth as the floor.  When placing this layer over the background I chose to mask off the upper wall and bench to keep it soft and etherial, like heaven.  The earthly portion received the bulk of the structure  for a more gritty effect. When I got to the feet I thought they were funny, and  yet photographers like odd numbers for composition, more so the number three is a favorite occurrence in many religions. So the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost could be one foot each. Or the Beam of light is the Holy Ghost, the one leg is the Son, and the woman’s two feet represents God, (very PC).  On the other hand it could be a geometric abstract with human presence for scale.  In the end, I realize, it’s a portal almost open and the next jumpers are waiting.