Photo Friday! - Lonely Bicycle

So this is an idea I got from a friend who also writes a blog. I've been meaning to do this for a long time, but never got a chance to do it until now. So here's how it works - every Friday, I will post a photo that I have taken and write a short writeup about that photo. Some will be old photos that you may have already seen, some will be brand new photos that I just took that week, and some will be from anywhere in between. So without further ado - here we go!


"Lonely Bicycle"

I took this photo back in April of this year while walking around my hometown taking photos. Unlike many days, I actually went out with a plan of what I wanted to photograph and what themes I wanted to stick with. I started the day with the idea of capturing some older buildings, specifically the lesser-seen unpainted brick that makes up the backs of most of the buildings. I was really happy with my take for the day - the golden hour light was really working well for me, and some of the textures on the bricks were really popping out beautifully.

As I walked across the river to where I had parked my car, I happened to glance to my right and saw, far in the distance, a bicycle leaning against a lamppost. I immediately had this vision for this photo, and ran over to start setting up. The streetlights had not yet come on, and I was desperately hoping that the light would actually turn on tonight so I could get some great toplight on the bike. Eventually they did come on, but the ambient light was still too bright to blend effectively. I kept watching and waiting for the perfect moment when the street light would be just strong enough to light the bike the way I wanted it to.

Overall, I spent about 30 minutes, from conception to final capture, getting this photograph, but I was really happy with the way it came out. I did very little post-processing work - just a little bit of color correction and noise reduction, and the addition of a very subtle vignette to draw focus to the bike. At the end of the day, I was happiest with this photo more than any of the others that I took that day.

R