November 9, 2010

a midwest fairy tale

fairy tale

I took this photo near Funks Grove on a recent photo trip with my Dad. We saw a train bridge nearby and decided to go exploring.  We found this old silo hidden along the tracks and it immediately captured my imagination.  It almost seemed like a fairy tale tower...like Rapunzel had once escaped from its heights. It was a fantastic find.

I edited the picture almost right away when I got back. I really went to town on it to give it the feel I wanted. The leaves in the foreground were all green.  I wanted it to feel more like fall, so I changed them to shades of red and orange.   I added my textures, as usual, and it took a lot of playing to make it look a bit faded.  Sometimes I have a hard time finding the balance between texture and photo.  I don't want the details in the photo to be completely washed out, but at the same time I want to give it a painterly quality.  So it really ends up coming down to trial and error with these...just playing around until something works for me.

In other news, I will actually post some photos of my fall decor in the near-ish future for the my imaginary followers to admire.  I am excited to find 5 actual, factual followers now...and four of them aren't my Mom!