We've all seen signs like this. With apologies to comedian Bill Engvall, this is a "Here's Your Sign" entry.
As if a driver wouldn't notice that this road was closed. Duh.
strictly scenic: September 2008 Archives
Indianapolis is the 13th largest city in the United States, and the second most populated state capital in the country, and somehow, you'd expect a more sophisticated welcome to the home of Peyton Manning, the Indy 500 and more soybean fields that you can imagine.
The state seems proudest of its breadbasket with this sign, something I came upon while on my way to an in-law reunion. Seeing humor in photos is another way to keep interest in pictures, and this one seems to fit-- Indianapolis and all its skyscrapers, welcoming visitors with its soybean fields.
Splashing through the creek at York College could have been so much fun this summer; and you wished you could just forget about mortgage payments, gas prices, your job-- just for a moment.
Newspapers once used a lot of what we at the YDR call 'free art', that is, just photos that are fun, pretty, or unusual. Generally, however, newspapers have now steered away from this type of photo unless it goes with a story. By itself, it's too much 'fluff'. People want news, and photos that are linked only to those stories.
This photo was shot years ago on one of those miserable hot days in summer, when kids were finding ways to cool off. You see some interesting things just cruising around town...
Silhouettes are relatively easy to shoot, and often, especially with point and shoot cameras, you'll get a silhouette even when you don't want it. The light meter will read all the strong light from behind the subjects and adjust accordingly, giving the silhouette. Many cameras have a backlight mode which will allow more light into the camera, and put more detail in the subjects.
Someone once said you must know all the rules in order to break them all properly. That's probably true in any field, but certainly in photography.
One rule I've generally gone with is the Rule of Thirds, where the main subject is at the intersection of horizontal and vertical rules, dividing the photo in thirds. It seems to give photos more life, less static.
But this photo, which won a first place ribbon at the York Fair, has the main subject -- the flamingo's eye-- smack dab in the center. As an experiment, I cropped the photo different ways, taking the black upper left corner out, accentuating it, etc. None of them worked for me.
And that the picture is nearly perfectly square isn't especially pleasing either, but rules are made to be broken.
And this photographer knew the rules and broke them-- properly and perfectly.
