Monthly Archives: July 2011
Your help needed: Fine Art for Children
I need your help. In the coming weeks I will be exhibiting some of my photographs in order to raise funds for McKinsey for Children. The images will be presented printed and framed (up to 150 cm wide), and people will be able to ‘buy’ a photograph in return for a donation of a predetermined amount (i.e., the sales price of the photograph).
We are going to start the initiative with 5 selected photographs. In order to help me choose the most promising ones that will appeal to a large audience, please participate in the poll displayed below. Click through the list of photographs that I have selected as candidates for the initiative, and choose the 5 that you like best. Your help is truly appreciated.
Please select the 5 photographs that you like best and/or that you think would appeal to a large number of people.
- Shades of Scarlet (55%, 22 Votes)
- Abandoned (53%, 21 Votes)
- Silent Sunrise (48%, 19 Votes)
- Majestic (40%, 16 Votes)
- White Haven (38%, 15 Votes)
- Purity (38%, 15 Votes)
- Silent Desert (30%, 12 Votes)
- Idyll (30%, 12 Votes)
- Badwater (28%, 11 Votes)
- Fall Birches (28%, 11 Votes)
- Otherworldly (25%, 10 Votes)
- Rising High (23%, 9 Votes)
- Dreamland (20%, 8 Votes)
- Awakening (15%, 6 Votes)
- Winter Wonderland (8%, 3 Votes)
Loading ...Abandoned
And now something completely different – and still a big favorite of mine!
Today’s photo of the day is from another amazing location in California – the ghost town of Bodie . About 32 miles northwest from the road that leads into Yosemite National Park from the west and almost 100 miles from Bishop, CA, this place is pretty much far away from everything. Bodie is open all year, but the long road that leads to the town is usually closed in the winter due to heavy snowfall, so the majority of visitors to the park come during the summer months. Moreover, as the road is not fully sealed (a couple of miles at the end are gravel road), it requires a 4WD (or a lot of patience) to get there.
The ghost town can only be accessed after sunrise and closes before sunset (you have to pay a fee to get in), which is a unfortunate for photographers. However, with all the decayed building and things, Bodie still offers some amazing photographic potential. When I got there in October 2010, it proved to be a perfect day for what I had in mind. When I arrived at the town early in the morning, a few clouds were moving by fast. I parked my car and wandered around the old buildings – feeling overwhelmed by thinking of how many people once lived here, and how different the place must have been then.
Shortly after I had started my walk, I came across this abandoned car and realized that this was what I had been wanting to get. The clouds were just perfect at that moment, giving the car the right background and filling the otherwise bland sky. I set up my tripod just in front of the car and began shooting. When looking at the photograph at home, I was happy with the subject, but decided that this image would need some editing to really stand out. I had the choice of either giving it an old and rusty look, or giving it a vibrant look with strong colors as a strong contrast to the nature of the subject. I chose the latter option, and after some editing, I was fully happy with the result. Although I very rarely shoot man-made subjects, this is one that I truly fell in love with.
If you want to read more about Bodie, visit the Wikipedia article as a good start.