Techy Bits

ISO: 200

Aperture: f/5.6

Shutter speed: 1/100 second

Wordy bits

The primary color is, you guessed it, green. This photo utilizes a shallow depth of field to pull the foreground into way more focus than the background, and creates a nice left-to-right visual contrast in clarity as well as color. The color levels and vibrance/saturation have been adjusted to make the green pop out nice and strong, while everything else lowers to gray – the secondary color.

Techy Bits

ISO: 100

Aperture: f/6.3

Shutter speed: 1/160 second

Wordy Bits

When taking pictures of stationary objects, it’s always a good idea to have the ISO set to a very low value – 100 if possible. This will be no problem at all if you’re outdoors on a bright day, but may be a challenge when it’s overcast or you’re taking the photo indoors. Adjust the ISO as needed, but the lower the ISO, the more visual data the camera writes down and the higher quality the photo. This primary color is white bathed in a secondary color of green. I raised the contrast and black levels and adjusted the coloration to help create depth, and the clarity of the image was significantly lowered to create a soft, white glow around the flowers while blending the background together somewhat.

Techy Bits

ISO: 200

Aperture: f/4.5

Shutter Speed: 1/80 second

Wordy Bits

The primary color is quite obviously yellow, and the secondary gray. I noticed while playing around with the levels of this photo that I could completely remove the vibrance (creating a gray background) while maintaining some color in the flower. I think raised the saturation and color levels to bring it back up to a warm yellow. Depth of field and framing are important here – a decreased depth of field to make the subject pop out, and framing to create an image that’s interesting to look at. Many images look better when the subject is not directly in the middle of the photo, but slightly left, right, up, or down. This is called the rule of thirds.

Parting Advice

When playing with color, try to start off by focusing on two contrasting colors. Take photos of a warm on top of a cool, or vice versa. Obviously a whole array of colors will not spoil a photograph, but it’s good practice to just focus on two. And with that challenge, taking photographs will be that much more interesting – as you will keeping an eye open for particular elements in a scene and how they interact, rather than just having the mindset of “that’s pretty, I’ll take a photo of it.”

Techy Bits:

ISO: 900

Aperture: F/2.8

Shutter Speed: 1/30 seconds

Wordy Bits:

The key here is texture. I decided to spring the subject from the background by enhancing the natural fractals that appear on the surface. An unintended side effect of using such a shallow depth of field is a phenomenon known as the Circle of Confusion. If you take a look at the ears of the ornament, you’ll see small light circles. This is light that’s being reflected, but is so out of focus (due to the depth of field) that it becomes circular. This effect is often used in romance movies on the lights in the background to create a colorful halo around the character’s faces.

Techy Bits:

ISO: 1600

Aperture: F/2.2

Shutter Speed: 1/20 seconds

Wordy Bits:

The grain you see on this one is due to the super high ISO setting.  Indoor lighting isn’t particularly kind, especially when a tripod or other stabilization device is unavailable. This shot, like mentioned in previous post, focuses on the eyes. I love the way a huge aperture can make such an impact on portrait shots. Notice that even the ears, which are maybe 2 inches away from the eyes at most, are completely out of focus. That narrow depth of field can add a lot of drama. Also, a small bear appears to have photo bombed my shot.

Techy Bits:

ISO: 1600

Aperture: F/2.2

Shutter Speed: 1/20 seconds

Wordy Bits:

Taking pictures of someone sleeping is risky business. Cameras aren’t the quietest things around, and the last thing anyone wants to do is wake up to see a lens in their face. But that aside, I like the expression of total comfort and the shapes that the objects in the scene create.. She’s surrounded by pillows  and even though the color lends itself to be a warmer picture, I find it relaxing. Indoor shot again, so ISO and graininess is particularly high. Also found it interesting that with a large aperture, most of the picture actually came into focus.

Parting Advice:

Focus on the eyes, and in my opinion, use a large aperture. People don’t like super-high detailed photos of themselves, as it highlights their flaws. A large aperture will ensure that you focus on the right parts (the eyes, lips, ear, etc) while the rest will be cast in a soft, slight blur. This softness makes the photo a lot more attractive.

Depending on the energy present in matter, it can take on a variety of forms – each of which with its own properties and reactions to the environment around it. I decided to take a few photos of these states of matter in a little series, and hopefully share some photo-editing wisdom along the way!

A quick precursor for today’s blog: all Camera Techy Bits are the same throughout with an ISO of 100, Shutter Speed of 1/200 , an aperture of F 5.6, and flash at 1/32 power. I’m going to elaborate more on the photo-editing aspects. None of the photos have been doctored, per se, but the various photo attributes have been changed (contrast, temperature, saturation, etc).

Gas

I upped the warmth of this photograph by increasing its red values, and balanced out the white by increasing its green values. This brought more contrast between the background and the white mist. The contrast was set very high, and black values were upped until the back turned pitch. The saturation was turned slightly down so that the white of the mist would pop out more, but not so much as to turn the picture monochrome.

This is probably my least favorite, but I felt it was a good capture of the idea of gas. I attempted photographing boiling water, but it turned out very poor. So with a few attempts with an albuterol inhaler, I was able to capture the mist in a fascinating way. I opted to keep the inhaler in the photo to provide a source of the mist, and it creates an almost volcano-effect of pluming gas.

Solid

Believe it or not, this is a clear glass of water and ice. The flash nullified the background, and upping the black values diminished the back and foreground entirely. The blue/green values were upped significantly to create a cooler temperature photo. Contrast was set to 80/100 so that the whites of the ice would pop, but would not overpower each other.

This turned out a lot better than I thought it would originally. The crispness of the ice and the white outline of the glass really shines out in contrast to the pitch black background. It really conveys the feeling of cold and solidness.

Liquid

Definitely my favorite. My next blog post will be a podcast, and I’ll detail exactly how I went about achieving this photograph (or rather, showing you exactly how you might want to go about getting a similar photograph). Once I had the original photograph, I cropped out all unnecessary parts of the picture, leveled it out (it was originally at an angle), and got to work.

The first step was to cool it down from white/grey to a cool bluish. I did this by upping the blue values, and slightly upping the green values to move the colors to more of a turquoise. The blackness was upped significantly (36/100), which really brought out the contrast in the waves. It’s very important in photography to try to have the whitest whites and blackest blacks without disrupting the flow of the photograph – saturation, brightness, and contrast are very good tools to control this. An unsharp mask later, and the crisp edges were brought out beautifully. I’m very proud of the overall composition of this piece, and feel it brings out the most action and interest.

Parting Words of Advice

Experiment. That’s the only way I could get these photos, and it took many, many tries to get just the right ones. 50-60 photos were narrowed down to about 10, which were each individually brought to presentation quality (IE: photo edited), and the best 3 were picked. It’s a very tedious process, but it’s the best way to pick out the winner of the bunch. Sometimes a photograph that doesn’t look like much simply needs to have its values altered slightly – give it a bit more contrast, more vivid color, change its temperature or bring out the blacks. A little bit of editing is okay and getting familiar with the post-production process will result in some stunning photography.

Credit for these photos goes to Bill Atkinson, Joe Decker, and Barbara Jordan.  Please visit their websites at

Atkinson: http://www.billatkinson.com/Homepage.pl

Decker: http://www.rockslidephoto.com/

Jordan: http://www.silvercloud.net/barbarajordan/

Bill Atkinson

Techy Bits

Aperture:  Something high, around F/22

Shutter Speed: ½ seconds

ISO: 400

Wordy Bits:

In this shot, Mr. Atkinson takes advantage of 3 distinct elements that the human eye adores. If you follow the edges of the creek, you’ll find they form parallel lines moving backwards to a vanishing point. The eye loves patterns that lead into the distance, as it makes images appear almost three-dimensional. The water is also very blurred, and is entirely intentional. With a shutter speed less than about 1/60 or so, water simply moves too quickly to be captured crisply. On the plus side, it can be captured blurred, and takes on the quality of clouds – very wispy and airy. It gives the image a very dream-like quality. The last element is the sharp contrast in color. The blue-white of the creek cuts sharply through the greenery of the scene. Otherwise, in a photo of all green, the eye would find the image too chaotic.

Joe Decker

Techy Bits

Aperture:  Something high, about F/18

Shutter Speed: B (huh? Explained below!)

ISO: 100-200

Wordy Bits

First off, I LOVE lightning photography, and really wish I could get the opportunity and setting to take it. Want to do it yourself? Here’s a couple of tips: The F-stop should be set relatively high, because the shutter is going to be open for an extended period of time (several seconds). Test around with your environment to see which photos give you the best non-lightning photo. ISO should be pretty low, around 100, for several reasons. You want to have the shutter open for longer (lower ISO requires more light) and it’ll result in the crispest, highest-quality image. And lastly the shutter speed. I listed this as “B”, because there is a setting on your SLR that says just that: “B”. This is the “Manual Release” option. Essentially, with either a wire cable or remote (highly recommend!), you can activate the shutter, and keep the button held down so that the shutter is open for as long as you hold it. With this in mind, position and setup the camera, then hold the shutter open for several seconds or until you get lightning. Why not just set the camera to expose for 5 seconds or so? You can, but the lightning will provide plenty of light for the photo, and if the lightning goes off 1 second in, then you’ll have 4 more seconds of non-needed light coming in, which may result in an over-exposed photo. As with any extend shutter speed, a tripod is a must! If I get some good lightning photos, you’ll be the first to see it!

Barbara Jordan

Techy Bits:

Aperture: Something low, around F/5.6

Shutter Speed: 1/250

ISO: 100

Wordy Bits:

Barbara Jordan is a phenomenal nature photographer, capturing great beauty in wildlife. Here she uses a technique that I mentioned in a previous post: eye focus. It’s very important when taking a photograph of any creature to have its eyes in focus, as it makes for a much better overall composition, and attracts the eye much more readily. More than likely she’s using a telephoto lens, as there’s little chance something like a wild wolf would allow her to get anywhere near, let alone one as young as this. Telephoto lenses tend to have wider apertures due to their mechanics, so they’re often best used in outdoor, sunny situations or very-well-lit indoor areas (standard lights generally don’t cut it, flashes or studio lighting are needed).

Parting Advice:

Different camera techniques are crucial to building a diverse portfolio, take it from the professionals. Water can look good blurred to give it  a wispy look, do this by having a slower shutter speed (if outdoors, compensate for the load of light by having a higher ISO and higher F-stop). Lightning and other flashes can be captured by having an extended shutter speed, and you don’t have to stick with the camera’s preset times (play with the B option to get the perfect amount of time for your shot). Telephoto lenses can produce some great shots, and coupled with a narrow depth-of-field (lower F-stop), can give some really dramatic effects to otherwise mundane scenes. Keep shooting!

Visit www.dpchallenge.com to view and even enter your own phography into weekly, friendly competitions. You’ll get great critiques and a wealth of knowledge to understand just how the heck those people managed to get such awesome shots.

Today’s project was, as the title should suggest, portraits. My goal through this was to take close up photography of living (or life-like) things in the style of a portrait. Now granted, these sorts of portraits are not what you usually see, as they have more artistic slant to them. But I feel the overall goal was reached.

Melly, striking a lens flare pose.

Techy Bits:

Aperture: F/2.5

Shutter Speed: 1/25 Seconds

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits:

The key is the eyes. As long as the eyes are in focus, the portrait will look great. Albeit, there are some artistic qualities about photos where the eyes are blurred and another subject, such as the nose, mouth, etc are in focus. But the overall goal of portraiture is to capture the eyes with clarity, as they are the first place the viewer focuses their attention.

Peyton and her Hat

Techy Bits:

Aperture: F/1.8

Shutter Speed: 1/15 seconds

ISO: 400

Wordy Bits:

Notice the lips. This is along the lines of what I was referring to earlier. I took some artistic liberty and focused on the lips, rather than the eyes, so that the color and contrast of the lips versus the rest of the piece can really shine through.  A side effect of having such a super-low F-stop is that the depth of field is super-narrow. Inches away, the tip of her hat goes out of focus.

"Missing You", entered into the contest "Children's Toys"

Techy Bits:

Aperture: F/10

Shutter Speed: 30 Seconds

ISO: 100

Wordy Bits:

I know you probably usually skip over the Techy Bits, but notice the drastic change between this and the others. This is my piece I submitted for competition in this week’s digital photography contest, and there’s some very important reasons why I would want to have these settings the way they are.
The Setup: A pitch black room with a solitary yellow-lamp as a light source, and the camera on a tripod. The remote clicker is used so that hand vibration doesn’t cause unnecessary blur to the photo.

The ISO: 100 is the lowest it gets, and provides the least-grainy photo (compare to the 800 used in the Playing With Fire series). The problem is, this requires a LOT more light. I can get this by altering the light in the room (which I don’t want, I really like the shadows that this light gives), the F-stop (and thus the depth of field), and/or the shutter speed.

The Shutter Speed: The subject is motionless, so I set the shutter speed to 30 seconds. This way, I can play with the aperture settings to find the perfect depth of field (I want the subject to be entirely in focus, and the background to be blurred).

The Aperture: F10 provides just the effect I’m going for, and with the 30 second shutter speed, allows just enough light in to provide a good, clean photograph.

The Result: A crisp, clean photo of a child’s doll with dynamic lighting, despite being taken in a near-pitch-black room. Very cool stuff.

Parting Advice:

The most important part of a portrait is the face.  The most important part of the face is the eyes. This is a good rule of thumb to go by, unless going for a particular artistic point of view. Low ISO is great for high-definition photos, but requires a LOT of light. This can be achieved through a wider aperture, increased shutter speed, or a bright light source. If the subject is not absolutely motionless (living humans are physically incapable of being motionless), try not to dip below 1/15 of a second. If the subject is still life, have a ball. It’s not unheard of to have super-long shutter speeds.

Techy Bits

Camera: Nikon D3000(same throughout)

Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 (same throughout)

Aperture: 1.8

Shutter Speed: 6 seconds

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

So we start off  with a bit of a fire circle pattern. She’s completely in charge of all fire-spinning related things. It was pretty interesting putting the thing together. We gathered the basic supplies (I’m omitting them to prevent liability), and set up shop outside her duplex immediately following a downpour of rain. Everything was nice and soaked, and we had a hose nearby just in case. It was pretty ideal overall. I played around with my new tripod and remote clicker (seriously, if you’re a photographer, get this thing, it works like magic).

Techy Bits

Aperture: 1.8

Shutter Speed: 10 seconds

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

This shot turned out really interesting because she got down on her knees and began spinning it around her  horizontally (with a bit of angle). The results looks almost like a time-lapse of a carnival ride. With her entire body moving except for her knees, her upper half ended up getting very blurred out, but her bottom half stayed nice and in focus. That’s the problem with time-lapse photography like this. The longer the shutter is open, the more likely you are to get very blurry subjects. The goal of the photoshoot was to capture the idea of “Dance”. Peyton, being as stubborn as she is, insisted on making light paintings. But still, they look pretty.

Techy Bits

Aperture: 1.8

Shutter Speed: 15 seconds

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

This is the piece that ended up being put into the digital photography competition “Dance”. I was pretty happy with it, despite her staying in a single spot and being blurred. The result ended up being a supernova of fire. Very chaotic, but the detail of the fire itself actually stands out pretty well. It also really captures Peyton’s inherent desire for chaos, which I thought fit her quite nicely (it’s also her profile picture now on Facebook). Overall a pretty successful photoshoot.

Parting Words of Advice

If I had to redo this, I would decrease the time of the shutter speed down to maybe 2-3 seconds tops and add a rear flash. A rear flash is a setting on the digital camera that sets off the flash a split second before the shutter closes (having been open for 2-3 seconds). With this method, I could get a clean, crisp image of Peyton inside of the fire, rather than blurred extremities. I would also lower the ISO down to 400, maybe 200. This way, the noise you see in the background would be much less visible, and the image overall would be cleaner. Also, if you can, try to work with somebody once or twice on a photoshoot. The butting of heads over creative ideas can result in some pretty interesting shots. Get a tripod, and get a remote clicker. They are fantastic.

Namely, my work and school schedule have not allowed me to go out into downtown Dallas at any decent hour of the evening (the earliest being 4 am… not a smart idea to be walking around downtown at 4am with a thousand dollar camera). However, this Friday is the downtown glow-in-the-dark festival of lights celebrating the Chinese New Year, so expect some great photos from that this weekend! But enough about what’s to come, what have I actually done?

Well this morning (around 5 am) I went in search for signs (my theme being “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign”), and found that signs are actually pretty darn boring. I’m sure I could have found an interesting sign or two eventually, but I was distracted by a fantastic garden-accessory store with a bunch of statues, fountains, flowers etc placed outside the store. The lightbulb went off in my head, and here we are! Let’s take a look:

State patriotism I suppose?

Techy Bits

Camera: Nikon D3000(same throughout)

Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 (same throughout)

Aperture: 1.8

Shutter Speed: 1/30

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

This was by far the most colorful piece I got today, which is really saying something considering the light available. The only sources of light were some street lights near by, and the ambient glow of the store’s security lamps. I was confident that I would be using strictly black and white photography, as the poor lighting conditions would lead to some great Key and Fill lights, and the only subjects I saw as I was pulling up in the car were statues and fountains. But lucky day! There was some color in there after all, and with a tiny bit of doctoring, it really pops. Sorry it’s a little fuzzy; at 1/13th of a second, hand-shake blur is almost unavoidable.

A random pumpkin/fountain still life. I like random pumpkin!

Techy Bits

Aperture: 4.5

Shutter Speed: 1/20

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

Word of advice: When you want to add a bit of drama to a photo, study your light meter. Aim the focal point at the darkest space, and allow the light meter to dip relatively far into the “darker” side. The overall picture will look darker, and won’t look as good on the screen at the back of the camera, but when you take the .raw file into photoshop later, you can adjust various light, color, and contrast intensities. You’ll be really glad you did, as the shadows will really stand out, and the lighter parts of the photo won’t become whitewashed.

It's my little Garden Angel, hyuck hyuck

Techy Bits

Aperture: 2.8

Shutter Speed: 1/60

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

Another bit of advice? Straight on shots are boring. They’re static, and they don’t draw the eye. Granted, this may not be the most intriguing photo in the world (hey, I work with what I’m given!), but taking shots from different angles grants perspectives that we don’t normally see. You also get the opportunity to throw in extraneous details, like the store light behind the statue’s head, giving a halo-like effect. The backlighting didn’t work out too well in this one, but that’s another really good way to achieve drama. Low key light, high back light.

It’s also a good idea to wear a thicker coat if you’re out taking photos in a parking lot at 5 am in February. Lesson learned.

Be sure to check back this weekend. I should have the photos from the Chinese New Year festival up by then!

Googles, the smiling fire hydrant

Techy Bits

Camera: Nikon D3000 (same throughout)

Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 (same throughout)

Aperture: 1.8 (same throughout)

Shutter Speed: 1/250

ISO: 400

Wordy Bits

So I found this little guy out by the Administration Building. He had a fantastic smile, and we hit it off right away. He’s into water sports, and fire fighters really turn him on. I found his friend a few meters away, a similar surface pipe with googly eyes glued on. Kudos to the subtle artist who decided to give the campus a little more… life!

To begin with, my fiancee’s grandfather gave me his old winter coat a while back, and with the amazing snow that fell on UTD this morning, it came in major handy. With the exception of my near-frostbitten hands, I was actually quite toasty.

However, as beautiful as snow is, it’s a major pain to take pictures in. It’s difficult not because of the cold or wet, but because of the light reflected. It may not be reflecting tons of light back at the camera, but the sheer whitewash of everything makes the camera think the picture is much brighter than it really is. The light meter inside of the camera then tells you “Hey, you need to turn the shutter speed way up! It’s too bright!” In actuality, the shutter speed may be just fine, or even too fast (making the subject of the image too dark).

It’s a game of cat and mouse trying to get the right setting without an accurate light meter.

The Blue Crossroad

Techy Bits

Shutter speed: 1/25

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

This is my favorite candid shot of the series I took today.

The way the lights shine through the snow like fog really adds depth to the piece. I love the combination of colors, textures, and shapes I managed to get in a completely out of the blue, in the moment shot. It was by sheer accident, and I love it! The texture of the road particularly strikes me. It almost looks like the screen itself is wet!

The time was about 7:10 AM or so, and I had just gotten out of the apartment in a panic. I wanted to get onto the campus before anyone else left footprints. Virgin snowfall on some of the architecture and art we have around campus would provide some great photo-fodder, I thought. Turns out most of the keepers of the shoot were unintentional. But early morning light created a gorgeous blue ambience over everything.

I hadn’t yet gotten acclimated to the cold, so my hands were still shaking a bit. If I had played it smart, I would have upped the ISO to 1600 so I could increase the shutter speed, but it was early and I wasn’t thinking entirely straight, so it’s got a tiny bit of motion blur. If anything, I think it adds a bit of character to the piece.

Biking Powder

Techy Bits

Shutter Speed: 1/15

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

The bike was CAKED in powder.

This may be the signature shot of the series, and while I can notice some photographic flaws (the bike looks like a unicycle, for one), the composition of the piece came out pretty well. I loved the way the snow clung to the spokes, and it made them stick out beautifully. This was the second subject I took pictures of when I walked out the door, so the morning light was still pretty dim.

The lamp that was standing nearby provided a good key light (check out the shadow!), and the bench near the bike stand made for a fantastic impromptu support. The problem with going below 1/30 shutter speed is that naturally occurring hand movement, even pressing the shutter release can be enough to blur the image.

However, my fiancee’s uncle, a seasoned amateur photographer, gave me this advice (and it works perfectly): treat the camera as though it were a rifle. That is to say, shoot a picture the same way you shoot a gun. Breathe in, focus the lens, then breathe out and calmly squeeze the “trigger” simultaneously. This calms the nerves temporarily enough to allow for great, smooth motion. In turn, it allows you to take some great photographs with an extended shutter speed without worrying too much about motion blur.

Phase 3 at 4 a.m. with a cyanoscope filter

Techy Bits

Camera: Nikon D3000 (used throughout shoot)

Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 (used throughout shoot)

Aperture: 1.8

Shutter Speed: 1/20

ISO : 800

Wordy Bits

Painful, but totally worth it.

That’s what I’d have to say about braving the cold and wet of the University at 4 a.m. on a Monday morning after a good rain and temperatures in the 30s. I took about 100-120 photos over the course of the night, and I’ve gotta say, the results came out pretty darn good.

I ended up only keeping about 20 photos, but these are the cream of the crop. Obviously you’re going to notice a bit of weirdness about the photos – a little surrealism. This is due to how our eye works vs how the picture was taken. The camera, with its super wide F1.8 aperture and 1/20 – 1/10 of a second shutter speed, let in a lot more light than our eyes normally see. Because artificial lighting usually has some kind of color to it (usually a yellowish), this adds some surreal kind of coloring to everything around it. On top of that, with this particular photo of Phase 3, I added a cyanoscope filter, making everything very bluish.

Engineering Symmetry

Techy Bits

Aperture: 1.8

Shutter Speed: 1/15

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

A change of pace is nice, and symmetry can be a good thing.

Usually you don’t see much symmetry in photography, but in this case I think it works very well. If you don’t recognize this, it’s the CS and Engineering building. This beautiful part of campus is usually pretty hidden away behind the garden next to the main north/south road of campus, but in the rain slick it looked particularly beautiful. I tried to frame it so that the twin lights made a symmetrical reflective pattern, and it works.

Right around here is where I ran into the friendly UTD police.  You would think they would show more animosity toward a guy in a black coat and black hat walking around campus at 4 in the morning with a big satchel, but they were exceptionally friendly and I hope I run into them again at some point during future campus shoots. Kudos to the UTD cops for not being jerks!

Haunted Walkway

Techy Bits

Aperture: 1.8

Shutter Speed: 1/10

ISO: 800

Wordy Bits

Save the best for last, right?

This is probably my favorite of the shoot, and is the one I am submitting to my new weekly photography contest(check it out! The contest is “Perspective VI: Create drama through Perspective”). The photo is unaltered for the most part, but I did up the blue intensity by about 10-15%. The air was still thick with moisture and it created a really cool halo effect around the lights, so I ducked behind a tree to block the bright light and only capture its halo. The result is really creepy and dramatic. Who knew that Founders North could be so intimidating? The silhouette of the tree works perfectly , too, as it adds some extra drama-factor with a bizarre shape and dark color.

That’s all for this shoot, folks. I’ll update later this week with my new theme “Lights of Dallas!”

The Honored Dead

The subject is one of the wall sculptures at the World War 2 memorial in Washington DC. I don’t want to get too much into politics, but the word freedom has been so overused in the past decade that while walking through this memorial (which is covered in various uses of the word), it lost a lot of its impact. Realizing this, I was left with a feeling of sadness; that I was not as impacted by this great monument as I should have been. It was then that I saw this sculpture (the one in the photo).

It was not a standalone sculpture, and it felt like more part of the scenery, or an afterthought. But I noted that it was here where there were American faces; the only part of the memorial that shows people, rather than words, water, or symbols. It was a section of wall on either side of a large ramp leading to the water fountains about 2 feet high, 20 feet long, and covered in soldiers in various states of war.

This, I felt, was the part of the entire memorial that had the most impact on me. There are huge stone structures, giant water fountains, and a big wall of stars representing the dead, and yet here is this background sculpture, staring at you through stony eyes of long dead men like the one pictured, who picked up weapons and lead groups of soldiers to their deaths for the sake of humanity. I felt this embodied World War 2 greater than any fountain, flag pole, or obelisk. I walked away from the memorial feeling about 3 inches tall that day.