late light

Fall is here with a chill in the air.  Fall colors are beginning to appear.  Summertime activities, boats are being pulled up out of the water until next season.   Days are getting shorter and sunsets get earlier and the sun moves further to the south. Looking forward to the change of seasons, for the renewal.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a friend’s place in the Big Bend of Texas. It’s over 500 miles from where I live in Austin. Most Texans have never been to Big Bend, because it takes time and effort to get there. It’s not near anything. It’s big. I never have a plan of what I’m going to do when I get there, but usually I end up having an adventure; and it’s always a deep experience. I have a special relationship with my camera when I’m there. It becomes the translator of my Big Bend experience.

While driving back from a trip though the desert, the scene was beautifully backlit showing off all the foliage.  Just pulled of the highway and trekked in to the wilderness a few hundred yards.  There I spied the cactus upfront with all the new pups at its base just kissed by the dropping light. There was some rain prior to my visit, not enough for the flowers yet, but looking promising for the not to distance future. Sometimes when an opportunity shows it self, stop and take a walk, it can pay photo dividends.

Sometimes interesting images are right in front of you, you just need to stop and look, down in this case. The layering of textures, green leaves over the blue cast brick with soft late light makes the green leaves vibrant against the dark bricks. The brick lines sweep the viewers eyes to the dark space and the perspective of the brick lines bring the eyes back around for another look.

My image is playing off the name of the sunglasses, Ray-Ban Outdoorsman. The glasses on the topographical map, when you look closely have familiar location references.   The late light enhances the contours of the wrinkled map and reaffirms the topographic nature of the map with the deep shadows. The warm sepia light gives it the additional feel of  “old school”.

I’m basing my photo off of Russ’s “Mini Mall”.  I am jumping a day, since I have to post a day early and I have no idea what Joe is going to come up with. I was on a shoot yesterday in downtown L.A., photographing a group of bankers on a roof top for an Annual Report.  I purposely scheduled them as late in the day as I could get them, hoping for some beautiful light.  Which I did luck out on.  After the shoot my assistant and I were able to hang out on the roof for a good half hour and get some shots with the late afternoon light.  It didn’t last long as overcast skies creeped back in from the coast.  I did get this shot however and I’m  calling it “Maxi Mall”. Where the big time bankers and lawyers get to play wonderful games and shop to their hearts content.