Peace, Man Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

My post today was inspired by "Romancing The Wall", Sunday's post from Barbara Kehl (baba_flies). She posted that artistic rendering of a mural on a wall in Denver, Colorado, I thought I could represent some street or building art as well. Although, this isn't just about the art, it is about the building, too. You may have seen my other images of the facades of buildings and know they fascinate me. This one caught my eye Sunday when I was driving through downtown St. Louis. I was actually on my way home from a candy shop in North St. Louis - that place is situated in an urban battleground of an area of our city. I took some shots of the blight around there, but they are even more embarrassing to me, to my city, than this one. Which, if I could have caught a homeless guy huddled under a greasy blanket in front of this place, would epitomize much of our St. Louis City area.

So, as embarrassed as I am, I was taken with this building, so dilapidated and near destroyed as it is, and by the hopeful hippie flashing the peace sign on the one door and the caricature of the apparently stoned owl. In between those comic book panels is some more psychedelic decoration. It would have been easy to crop around the upper floor and the grey, cloudy sky, but I thought those elements added more to the image than if they had been taken away and I only showed you the artwork on the lower level. What do you think?

Anyway, I did enhance the sky some, as due to the proper exposure of the building facade the surrounding sky was a little blown out. I actually shot it to be filtered with the wide angle distortion tool and the sky to be cropped out, but changed my mind as I was post-processing it. I also removed some pincushion distortion and leveled the street a degree or two, built the frame, re-sized and sharpened in PS CS2.

This one is for you, Barbara - no country music here!

phwall, Floydian has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

BlueRaven (35) 2009-04-07 7:26

Hi Reed,

So how are the Blues doing these days? Making the playoffs?
This is an interesting shot - very somber... If it showed some kind of "high-rank" building, I'd say it's too bad there wasn't a better light situation, but with this building it fits perfectly.
The only thing I have to complain about (you know, women always find something to nag!) is the two white spots in the bottom corners - maybe remnants from rotating?

Have a great day,
Claudia

BennyV (4721) 2009-04-07 8:35

Hi Reed,

Lovely shot, beauty where you don't expect it. I love the "Supreme Plumbing" sign, I cannot begin to imagine...

Benny

jasmis (50440) 2009-04-07 9:00

Superb a little bit "spooky" house. Amazing deep colours. Smart note, as well.
Regards.

phwall (5570) 2009-04-07 16:16

Hi Reed,
Between the stoned Owl and the hippie on the other side I can see why the plumbing business went to the wall. I like the bulls eye painted onto the chest of the owl, reminds me of one of the great Larson cartoons. He had a herd of deer grazing in a forest, and one of the deer had a big bulls eye on his side, one of the deer says to this deer, unfortunate birthmark you've got there pal. Sorry you had to be there.
So, the photograph, I like it, it's very much an archival look at the history of the city, where it came from and where it is now. Funny how a building can have so much personality, this one in particular. I'll bet the folks that worked there had some fun times at the end of the week throwing back beers and swapping yarns.
I notice you've got a couple of slivers left over after the rotation. When you haven't room to crop these out, what I do is just clone in some extra shot from directly where the slivers are using a small brush with a soft edge. I've done this quite often, it works well.
Sorry about the long winded comment, it's a good shot, well done.
Regards
Peter

dvlazar (6486) 2009-04-07 20:22

An interesting old building - i like the artwork all over the garage doors. The sky is well corrected - creates mood and atmosphere to the street corner.
Thanks!
Dave

Jean-Luc (5488) 2009-04-08 1:48

Bonjour Reed,
Merci pour la visite et le très intéressant commentaire laissé dans ma galerie. C'est donc une occasion pour faire connaissance et échanger des points de vue sur les posts que nous choisissons pour les proposer à nos amis de TE.
Même un peu sombre, cette vue est pleine d'humour et je constate que cette vieille maison a certainement plus de charme depuis que l'on a peint sur sa façade ces "graffitis".
Amicalement
Jean-Luc

delpeoples (6082) 2009-04-08 3:55

Hi Reed, I like it. And I like your framing too, it really suits it. You did well with the available light, especially give an ISO of only 200. I suppose the large aperture made up for it. Great colours and sharpness too. TFS & have a happy Easter if I don't "see" you over the next few days, Lisa.

Floydian (30970) 2009-04-08 6:25

Hi Reed,

Let's forget for a moment those white edges in the low corners and focus on the house. Weird, crazy, but sooooooo funny. The house looks old when i look at the second floor, but brought by you in a colour setting that i like to see in here, creates a fine mood. But the owl (with shooting circle) and the peace man do steal the show here...very funny, very nice.

Regards,

Henk

baba_flies (7985) 2009-04-08 8:03

Reeeeeeeeed :))) This is now too much and I am glad that I have inspired you, and thank you for including my name, AND I just saw that this is all for me. What a wonderful gift. I have actually two more "wall art" pictures on line, taken in Gunnison/Colorado last summer. Just crossed my mind when I thought about it. Very good how it is, Reed, I like the cloudy sky included. It has another approach this way, you also show the building and some of the architecture in your area, and this is AS improtant I find. Very good, and very funny. Thank you so much + Happy Easter ... but I guess I will be online here and there. I am going to my weekend home and I have internet access there as well. Best regards, Barbara.

Flavia (10202) 2009-04-15 7:02

Hi Reed,

Great subject! This house is amazing, it may not be new or fancy but it has a lot of caracter! The wall paintings are really great. Well captured and sharp picture allowing all the details to be well appreciated.

Regards,

Flavia

marietom (31954) 2009-04-17 1:04

hello reed,

ce mur est très beau, dommage qu'avec ce contre jour, il ne soit pas très visible...
Bonne journée
Marie