A Warm Welcome

Hotel

I shot this image in my city's beloved Exchange District. Some might have tried to get this shot sans truck but I quite like the ordinary in my compositions.

Including the Hotel sign balances the image and also adds interest.

My shutter speed was 1/100. The aperture was f/7.1 which allowed for an increased depth of field. My focal length was 24 mm and ISO 100.

Getting Some Air

I shot this image using f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/50. That's about the slowest I'd hold my camera with this lens before reaching for my tripod.

For me, this picture needed a bit of processing beyond what I would normally do when converting an image from RAW. I brought it into Lightroom and played until the saturation and contrast were what I wanted. I developed my own preset awhile ago which I used and changed it up a bit with a few tweaks. Then I exported to Photoshop to add a texture layer over top, further aging the image while warming up the colours a touch.

Creativity begins long before the shutter is clicked and long after the image is uploaded to the computer. Don't stop short.

Winnipeg's Exchange District

The Exchange District in our dear city is a community rich in both architecture and arts. I can take endless photos of the aging buildings that have their stories mortared between their bricks. It is as though taking their pictures allows me to imagine for a little while longer what those stories might be while understanding the tales held in the bricks and boards may well be different than my mind's wanderings and wonderings. Yet I am still free to imagine.

I find this composition to be interesting and engaging. The vintage billboard on the aging building is juxtaposed with the metal and wires found immediately beside it, as though echoing the marking with reality.

Without the bird, I think this image would lose something of importance. Flying, she moves freely between the wires and away from the building and the tales it holds. She is not bound to man's memories.