Helen Sweet  


Venture Not by Helen Sweet

October 2021 - Venture Not

October 2021 - Helen Sweet

Original

About the Image(s)

My husband and I saw this house as we were driving. Then I learned its story. The Redman-Hirahara House in Watsonville, CA was designed by William Weeks in 1897 for James Redman. The farm was later owned by a Japanese American family. It was maintained by local citizens during the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II and was returned to the Hiraharas after the war. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. After years of vacancy, in 2015 it was sold to an agricultural company which plans to farm the land. Taken with my Sony 6300, 1/4000 sec, 21mm,f/8. In PS, I cropped, reduced the keystoning, removed some distractions and adjusted brightness and saturation.

Sent this in to Administrator Howard, then realized would be a good Halloween pic. Inverted, added light in the windows, and the fence. Then some tweaks and a narrow stroke. Here's the revised rendition.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted




Helen Sweet   Helen Sweet
Here is the Original, which, for some unknown reason, Howard was unable to attach   Posted: 10/09/2021 13:37:26
Comment Image



Peter Curcio   Peter Curcio
(Group 10)
Great post processing. I agree it is a wonderful Halloween picture.   Posted: 10/13/2021 19:29:02



Howard Frank   Howard Frank
Nice Spooky image, Helen. Good job lighting it up. I'm a bit troubled by the fence you cloned in. It looks out of place. It might be interesting to clone in the original chain link fence and fix where the old farm equipment is.   Posted: 10/15/2021 18:31:28
Helen Sweet   Helen Sweet
Good idea, Howard. I hadn't thought of that.   Posted: 10/15/2021 19:13:22



Bob Scott   Bob Scott
The original is very nice on its own, although maybe stepping back a few feet to give space leading into the disks and lying on the ground t(It doesn't look like it was done that way) to shoot the photo with the disks more prominent would give a more dramatic perspective. The invert would make a very good poster but it looks chopped off on my screen   Posted: 10/16/2021 13:14:36



 
It's the patterns of light and luminosity that draw me into this image. It's a unique visual interpretation of the original. The house is still alive inside it's decrepit shell.

I would leave more of bottom part of the original in the image. I'm enjoying your work.   Posted: 10/16/2021 17:02:35



Bev Caine   Bev Caine
(Groups 24 & 48 & 58)
You did a superb job on this. I agree with Ham. Right now, it looks like the house was pasted on a black background. I would either leave some of the original image of clone in some dead grass or straw.   Posted: 10/17/2021 13:51:49