Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I was in central and northern California last week and in several places where my travels paralleled the railroad, I noticed the poles leaning every which way with some missing completely or broken off and up to six insulators on either side of the cross bar. I figured out on my own that this must be an old signaling system that the railroads used that is obsolete. What I couldn’t figure out is why the wire wasn’t salvaged or stolen. One of our camera club members worked on railroad signaling his whole career, so I pinged him on it. It turns out that the railroads used three different kinds of wire in their systems over the years: copper, iron, and copper coated iron. The latter two aren’t worth salvaging or stealing, which must have been the case with these stretches.
Specific Feedback
I apologize to Gill over stealing a bit of his style, but the light wires on black stood out better than the original black on gray.
To me there’s a bit more feeling of abandonment in this presentation than the positive would have conveyed, but I welcome opinions an other interpretations.
Technical Details
Straightened, cropped and converted to gray scale with a darks one mask, added a curves layer and darkened and brought down highlights in the foreground .
Critique Template
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Wowsie!! This is SO cool! (And I thought it was Gill’s at first.) I love the way the lies above parallel the tracks and both enclose the old and decaying pole and its now-useless wires. The black sky fits so well – evokes an IR.
There is a stretch south of the SNWR, between it and Colusa, that is like this – is that where you found this? Just off that stretch is where my recently posted gas pump and Shell signs were shot.
The old railroad stuff along there was better years ago but still worth checking out. I didn’t make it up there this winter or last, as word was (last year) that conditions were not at all good at both SNWR and Colusa. I’m curious how you found it. Probably too late now to bother.
Hi @Diane_Miller This was north of SNWR between there an Willows where I made my HQ. Plenty of this kind of stuff in the area. The refuge had a modest population of geese left, a ton of red-winged blackbirds migrating through, a very good population of meadowlarks-best opportunities in the mowed/burned areas toward the beginning where they were foraging, and marsh wrens all over the place, but especially good in the reeds after the bathroom (and they’re on the driver’s side there). Also quite a few glossy ibis there and at Colusa though getting them in the open was problematic.
Willows is a good headquarters with quite a few decent places to eat for such a small town. I highly recommend Wong’s Chinese Restaurant, which is easy to overlook. I’m tempted to go Meadowlark hunting – I love them (and their song) and never see them around here. They have been teasing me cruelly around Bridgeport on recent forays to the eastern Sierra, where they sing hidden in the tall grass.
Gill: an excellent example of how to see things differently, as I would have driven right by this scene on my search for the nearest Starbucks. Really love your imagination and processing.
