Beale @ Dusk Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is a continuation of yesterday's theme, which was Memphis in May.

My wife and I decided to go to Memphis for the weekend, when looking on-line to see what would be fun to do, I discovered there was a three-day music festival - The Beale St. Music Festival. We got tickets and decided to get down there a day early so we could enjoy the city some before the festival used up all our time. I have a hard time leaving when the music is playing...

Yesterday's upload was shot a little earlier in the day and further up Beale - for this shot we have just turned off 2nd onto Beale after eating dinner. Of course, I have shot a couple dozen frames between "Soul Outsiders" and this one. I liked this shot because of the sunset and the neon - I knew it would be a challenge to get exposed properly and I only really had a couple chances at it unless I wanted to stand there and wait for people to walk through the frame like some sort of photo geek (ok, maybe I am, but I want people to think I know how to have a good time, too!). It may be a little dark on your monitor - especially if you are using a laptop. It looks about perfect on my desktop monitors.

Anyway, this is looking up Beale Street from 2nd Street South in Memphis, Tennessee at about 7pm on Thursday, April 30, 2009. The neon is coming on, the sun is setting and, while they have never stopped playing since we left earlier, the blues are getting ready for the evening on Beale Street.

Shot with a 18-200mm VR lens, no filters, in RAW with very little post processing - slight leveling, framed, re-sized, sharpened.

phwall has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

jimmyjimmy (564) 2009-05-06 6:07

Hey Reed

Nice capture. I like the way the neon brings out the picture. Nice pov. TFS

Regards
JImmy

phwall (5705) 2009-05-06 20:36

Hi Reed,
I like your POV here, the view down the street has a lot of very interesting elements. The vertical crop also works well, by concentrating on just the footpath and shop fronts. The pole on the right of frame, for me, makes the shot a little too busy but I'm sure you were stuck with it. My main problem is the shot looks very flat, I'm thinking you may have exposed for the sky which has tended to wash out the neon signs and darkened the foreground. I've put a workshop down for you to have a look at, I've gone to town on the saturation of the neons and other areas of spot colour as well as lifting the foreground to get a bit more definition. It's a little on the rough side but it will give you an idea of where I would have gone to. You know me, I'm a colour and movement sort of bloke.
I like the shot, I just think you could have done a bit more with it.
Regards
Peter

[workshop] [compare] +

speedymanu (1594) 2009-06-02 13:33

Hello Reed

I like that bluesy dusk atmosphere, sort of blue hour time. Your composition is quite sophisticated and has a real depth.

Congratulations

Emmanuel

trewheeler (1707) 2009-06-02 13:55

Another classic "Reed Postcard Shot". I'm telling you man - you really know how to frame for a classic postcard location shot. Shame there's not someone more interesting in the FG, but oh well. Nice take. Regards, TW