I Tried So Many Times
Invasive Idea
Please don't think that because you see all these wonderful photographs I make that it comes easily. It doesn’t and today is a good example of what didn’t work.
The lonely Bradford pear at the Hoover Dam turnaround is a bright spot in a brown and grey world. I made notice of it yesterday while making photos to go with the Westerville News story about the record water level at the lake. Didn’t make any photos because it was cloudy and a proper photo needed bright sun.
I went back today to see if I could make it work. What looked good in passing yesterday didn’t look as good today, even with the bright sun.
The tree looked great but everything around it was distracting. The parking sign in the nearby handicapped spots. The fence posts. The wings on the lights in the background. Too many bare trees in too many wrong places to use as composition elements.
Eventually used my iPhone for an up-close wide-angle highly edited view for My Final Photo.
Crossing Main
While traveling to a meeting in Uptown I stopped to make a photo of an Otterbein student crossing Main Street with the Bradford pear trees as the background.
Getting a good photo required several things to happen. First was the bright sun hitting the pear trees. Second was a student crossing the street while the pear trees were still lost by the bright sun. No vehicles in the photo so the student would be isolated against the background. Third, don’t get struck by a vehicle while standing in the street to get the angle on the trees.
Got the light and that was it. I watched the scene until the sun began to fall below the afternoon cloud layer. Just before it disappeared a student stepped into the street. So did I but the truck interfered with the competition. Then the sun disappeared.
No photo.
Solar Eclipse Planning
The city is using portable signs to help direct people and traffic during Monday’s solar eclipse. One of the notices flashing across the sign is “Do Not Look At the Sun.” Thought that would make a good photo with a bright spring sunset behind it. The sign on Polaris near Africa Road faces east so the sunset would be behind it.
Good idea. Bad execution.
The sunset wasn’t very colorful. It was really quite bland, all greys and light yellow. The trees along the roadway jutted into the frame creating distractions from the subject. In order to get an angle on the sun so it is directly above the sign meant standing in the middle of the right lane of traffic on Polaris, similar to the middle of the road required for the photo above. Only with cars traveling above the 45-mph speed limit.
It also required a slow shutter speed to get all the LED bulbs illuminated during the exposure. The bulbs cycle across the board at a speed making it appear to the human brain as constant illumination. A fast shutter speed only catches the bulbs lit during the very brief exposure period.
Might go back again for a better sunset but the trees will still be in the way, and I’ll still have to stand in the roadway.
The Last Bradford Pear
This is the last time I will publish a photo of a Bradford pear other than when it is being removed from the landscape or as an illustration of how devastating an invasive species they are. They choke out all native trees, bushes, shrubs, and wildflowers including the bright and welcome redbud tree. Nothing other than mosses grow beneath them. And they stink. It is now illegal to grow and sell them in Ohio. Several states have also banned them and others are actively removing them from the landscape.