Bill Board Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

There are laws against placing advertising billboards along most interstate freeways in California but there are certain exceptions to the law, which means billboards such as this one remain and that they earn a great deal of money for those who control them. This particular one is on the east side of Interstate 80 not more than a mile from the Bay Bridge. Tens of thousands of cars and trucks pass this billboard each day.

I was rambling about Emeryville looking for possible shots yesterday when I noticed that the bottom of this structure was accessible. There was a security officer for a local apartment high rise nearby, but he was sitting in his vehicle reading a book. He didn't care what I did even as I walked right past his window to position myself for this shot. What you see are walkways that encircle the structure and give access to workers who regularly replace the advertising art work. To my eye, this is a much more interesting than the ads themselves. I hope you agree.

I used the newly discovered spherize filter to remove barrel distortion, followed by the perspective tool before processing the image.

RandomCameraGuy, carper, GrahamB, ChrisJ, avigur_11, bertolucci, danbachmann, mikee has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

carper (64546) 2004-07-13 3:40

Very good shot Curtis,
I like the way you took it, very nice lines, very good colours, you have to see it. Great job.

RGatward (19737) 2004-07-13 3:49

That's a neat shot Curtis. I don't think I would have thought of it. Good note too.

claudiaf (4404) 2004-07-13 5:24 [Comment]

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merpb (1970) 2004-07-13 5:31

A very unusual view Curtis and one that works very well.
The foliage breaks the symetry and adds some tension and weight to the shot.
Well seen and presented

GrahamB (939) 2004-07-13 5:35

Great shot Curtis, very well seen.
I like the framing and as Richard mentioned i like the bush or tree breaking the symetry.

ChrisJ (70019) 2004-07-13 6:15

Ditto

The left hand side of the image has a cyan bias.

avigur_11 (21271) 2004-07-14 22:54

I like this one very much, Curtis, a very interesting POV and perspective.

RandomCameraGuy (3063) 2004-07-17 11:57

The lines in this are very cool. I didn't quite know what it was until after I read your note. Great contrast and colour. Cheers Curtis!

Gatis (899) 2004-07-21 8:38

I am very negative at ads as such and very postive towards this picture at the same time :) Without that bush it would be very ornamental

mikee (1981) 2004-08-12 21:39

It took me a few confusing seconds to figure out what exactly is that thing in your shot :)
A very neat and interesting composition. Well seen. Well done.

sn00zie (2384) 2004-09-13 9:21

WOW! this is a great shot curtis. the lines are amazing and so are the colors.

dom_inik_m (1707) 2006-08-03 18:19

Back in time, back in space...
What a treat to look again at some of your "old" photos on TrekEarth, when your eye and mind were mostly tuned to graphic opportunities and geometric compositions!
This one is really striking, arboring symetric stylishness (see-through walkways, thrift of colors, balance of the light hoods) where every detail requiress to be scrutinized with admirative care.
I think you should have corrected the parallax distorsion of the "upper" section, playing a bit with the free transform tool in PS, but that's only a minor drawback.
If I've got the chance, I promise you that, from now on and thanks to you, I'll never look at any billboard with indifference!
Thanks again for what you allowed me to see and taught me, Curtis... ;-)