An Evening On Grounds

It’s been a while since my last post. Our new life in Virginia is wonderful but I’d like to find more time to go take photos. I got such an opportunity a couple of weeks ago! My wife and I had gone to the UVA campus for a show a few weeks prior and I loved the shadows and architecture that the late afternoon/evening light made. So I wanted to get back with my camera to capture some of those.

The afternoon I had planned to go seemed perfect. Some afternoon showers had rolled through and the clouds were pretty. I had high hopes of some high contrast and harsh shadows with an interesting sky. Unfortunately, I was challenged. Off in the distance I could see some interesting sky but between me and the sun was nothing but a large nebulous cloud - I had nothing but soft light to work with all evening. It took me about an hour and a phone call to a friend to get out of the funk of not having what I expected. Eventually, I found smaller scenes that did not require the harsh light I was expecting.

As I was talking to a friend on the phone who was encouraging me by trying to list things that I might focus on in this situation, I looked at this railing that I had already passed. It is interesting. I like that the rail has one vertical post that fits with the wall while the rest of the railing is obviously angled differently. Perhaps a slightly different crop or angle would’ve made it better. I can’t tell if the shutters in the background are a distraction or if they add. The more I look at it, I feel like they are distractions.

The above scene is from the front of a little garden shed I found just off the quad. What caught my eye about this scene is the leaf. I think it would make any viewer wonder if the leaf was blown by the wind and just happened to wedge itself in that location or if someone placed it there. In editing the photo, I found myself frustrated that the photo couldn’t feel level. The handles are not straight and not at the same level. This makes this minimalistic image feel off balance and awkward, actually. I made the vertical seam straight but perhaps there is a way to rotate this that seems a bit more natural. Then again, this is the imperfection of life. A tool shed needs not be perfect, but locking it to dissuade rowdy students is probably a reasonable idea.

I like this photo quite a lot. It has a geometric feel with the brick lines and the line separating the ivy from the wall behind it. The texture of the ivy brings some relief to the texture of the bricks and vent. The pipe in the bottom left is nice too and I thought about changing the color of it for a bit more of a pop. I couldn’t figure out what color would look best so I’ve left it as is for now. It’s easier to miss than I hoped it would be so perhaps just a bit lighter or darker would make a difference.

I like scenes such as this but this photo isn’t very interesting. Someone clearly did not do the appropriate research before putting a new window frame in. The tinting is off - something I’m surprised passes in the quad of a university with such beautiful architecture. Maybe a closer in shot would’ve proved more interesting or artistic.

This is one of my favorite photos of the evening. If I were to describe this scene it might sound spooky but this photo does not feel that way. It feels like abandonment. The door may or may not still be used but either way it doesn’t look like a high-traffic entry point. The contrast of the blue of the door and green of the plant make this stand out to me. The leaf in the bottom is a bit of a distraction and I may remove it at another time. If I were less lazy or had more time (not sure which is the issue) I’d make that edit for this post.

On my way out, this little scene caught my eye. As I write my posts, I look at the “final” image that I’ve edited. However, continuing with the lazy/time comment, I tend to keep wanting to nitpick the images as I write about them. I’ve done this before - I used to iterate on the image edits as I wrote the blog posts but I found this made writing the post take 2-3x what it would take without iterating. Seems like no matter how long I look at an image, I always find things I’d like to change once I start writing about it. For this image, it’s the wall color - I don’t like it. I think it has too much yellow in it, too creamy. It might be nice to desaturate just the wall an bit. If I ever feel like this image has a place on display, whether it be on a wall, in a small frame on a desk, or as a screensaver, I’ll try that. For now, it remains the color of over-creamed coffee.

This is apparently a highly invasive species in North America called the Porcelain-berry or Amur peppervine. I like how it does, indeed, seem to be invading! It’s coming from whatever little crack there is in the asphalt and subsisting off of what comes down the drainspout. It looks like it’s trying to get into the building via the grate but has a backup plan to climb the electrical conduit and try another way in. Despite the owner’s sloppy use of spray foam for the other holes in the brick, this invasive species will find some way to invade, yet!

Looking back over these images, I’m noticing that they are mostly straight on shots. This might be an opportunity for me to learn from and try some different perspectives next time I go to grounds (Thomas Jefferson preferred to call it “grounds” instead of “campus”).

For anyone reading, I hope you enjoyed the images and aren’t offended by my lack of full effort in my editing. If you really believe in a fuller edit of any of these photos, I’d be interested in hearing. Since I know all of my readers, and comments are no longer enabled after moving away from wordpress, just text me!