Out of Place Photo

Photographer’s Note

As I was driving to church choir yesterday, I took a wrong turn and passed the Provo City power plant. It's a creepy old early 20th-century building that I've always wanted to get a black and white of. I looked a little closer, and saw some of the most beautiful tulips in front of the building. I thought it was pretty ironic that an entity with two ugly smokestacks would try to beautify its grounds, so I decided to capture the juxtaposition. Spring has come even to the power plant!

I shot this in color, but converted it to black and white because I thought it would better convey the gloominess of the plant. I also cropped it slightly and adjusted the contrast and color balance before removing the color. This is my first black and white attempt on TrekEarth. Let me know what you think.

fulvio52 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

dospordostres (1127) 2007-04-16 14:16

Hi Clark,
Nice framing of the plant with the tulips and the branches of the tree. The composition really has an intriguing feeling.
Cheers,
Daniel

Cormac (26449) 2007-04-16 20:40

Welcome to the black & white world! This is really good for a first attempt, and as you can see, it changes the image by making the shapes stand out more, while there are no distractions with the colour. Nice composition too, with the flowers in front and the smoke stack behind, with the contrast between the two adding a little commentary to the photo. Well done!

fulvio52 (8314) 2007-04-17 12:01

Hi Clark,
I fully agree with Cormac.
Great effort. I particularly like your POV + framing and the intriguing feel of this shot, as also mentioned in the very first comment.
It took me a little while to figure it all out... specially those tulips in Utah!
Excellent job by all means.
Hugs,
Fulvio.

fallan (1840) 2007-04-18 17:58

Very unusual perspective. Any way you could have got some light into the bell of the tulips to get a little glow in them? Might have helped your theme some.

Nelu_Goia (2724) 2007-04-20 14:32

Hi Clark,
"The beauty and the beast":)...I love it; you had a great idea chosing this POV.
Thank you,
Nelu

euryan (8345) 2007-05-19 20:19

How funny, I shot this building last fall and I converted mine to B&W as well, but my photos were pretty crappy. I really like how you used the tulips. It is a good juxtaposition. You must have had to lie on the ground to get this angle. I like the B&W. It makes the photo more about the composition and the light. Otherwise all we'd see are some brightly colored flowers.
Ryan