LightCentric Photography Blog: "The Dark Light"

ACK IN 2021, I posted about light. Even more recently, I posted about the effect of absence of light. Given my "brand," (for lack of a better description) LightCentricPhotography, it shouldn't be a surprise that much of my photography, thinking, and commentary centers around light. That's o.k., because light the essence of the photographic art.

I HAVE spent a lot of the waking hours over my lifetime reading. I love to read. I read every day. My reading list is broad. I like history, some current political commentary, photography, and fiction. Most of my fiction tends to be lighter, like mystery, thrillers, etc. Sometimes toward the whimsical. When my daily fiction reading collides with photography in any meaningful way, I think that is pretty cool. For a couple years now, since we moved to Florida (a state about which I knew almost nothing), I have been reading the sort of beach bum, ex-military spy, retired (and not so successful) sports figure and "gumshoe," type books set in Florida. I had already read through several contemporary authors when I found and turned to Randy Wayne White's "Doc Ford" series. For all I knew, Doc Ford's was a restaurant in Fort Myers Beach: Doc Ford's Sanibel Rum Bar and Grill (appropriately owned by Randy Wayne White). One of White's books I recently read has a passage that resonated with me. In the book: "The Dark Light," the protagonist, Doc Ford, says:

"Our perception of reality is visually based. Change the light and our reality is changed."

(Doc Ford)

PRETTY COOL for this to come up in a paperback novel. Of course, the author, Randy Wayne White, really said it, but it is more "cool" quoting Doc Ford. At least I think so (although I have probably used up my quota of the word, "cool" - for this post anyway). 😎 The majority of the images here are based on light or the absence of light. The opening image was shot at sunrise, at the Soo Locks connecting Lake Huron to Lake Superior in the Great Lakes. The locks are on the St. Mary River, which flows from Lake Superior, eventually into Lake Huron and which also serves as the border between the U.S. and Canada, at the northeastern-most part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Not surprisingly, the area around the locks is substantially commercial-industrial, and marine oriented. In the revealing light of day, it is cluttered and not particularly photogenic. The bridge is not architecturally aesthetic. In the dark, even though things are artificially lighted, there is simply not enough of anything revealed to make what I find to be an appealing photo. I think the sunrise and particularly the sun star (even the flair spots), give the scene some drama, and change the otherwise potentially drab, industrial reality of the image.

THE DAYLIGHT shot of the Port of Barcelona (actually just after sunrise) is a pretty realistic presentation of the Cruise Ship portion of Barcelona's very impressive seaport. From the top deck of our cruise ship, I went wide with this to get the sweeping curve of the access road and the engaging architecture of the bridge. It also shows the wider setting of the city's old Gothic Quarter and mountains in the background. Barcelona is a geographically diverse and large city. The image also displays some of Barcelona's unique architecture. Still, it is a pretty plain, "record" shot. Shot from the very same spot, this time in the dark of night however, the image below paints a very different, appearance. I have always been a sucker for a water reflection, and the different colored reflective lights here are fascinating to me (as well as putting something more interesting in what was kind of a blank space expanse of grey water in the daylight image). It definitely illustrates Doc Ford's point: change the light and our reality is altered.

AS I said earlier, sometimes the absence of light is fun to work with. Not the complete absence. Instead, just enough to reveal. Going through some old images a few months back, the image of the working boat in San Francisco harbor just underneath the Bay Bridge kind of "spoke" to me. It was what some might call a silhouette. My own sensibility says it's a "near-silhouette." I didn't want to completely silhouette the boat, but I didn't want any real detail either. My own ability to get this one looking the way I wanted, stems from the beauty of digital processing. The wet darkroom equivalent would have been possible but would have taken way more skill than I will ever have. So I brought the shadows up just enough to suggest the white color of the superstructure, without making it visually obvious.

WHEN I was a much younger man in my early 20's I spent a college semester in Washington, D.C. The historical part of The District is very compact - easily driven (indeed most of it walkable) during odd hours when there is no traffic - and easily walked or combined with mass transit. I lived in Rossyln (nothing more than a subway stop and really part of Arlington, Virginia). It was directly across the Potomac River from the Kennedy Center, and a short walk to the capital, the Mall, and most of the city's famous monuments. The Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial is a bit more off on its own, and my favorite time to visit it is at night. This monument is in Arlington, immediately adjacent to Arlington Cemetery, directly across Arlington Boulevard (U.S. Route 50, more or less bisecting The District, north and south) from my Arlington Towers high rise. I loved to do what I called the night monument circuit, visiting - among others - The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, and The Jefferson Memorial (this was some years before the Viet Nam Wall) as they were lit by spotlights. My favorite was probably the Iwo Jima Marine Memorial. They are all impressive enough in daylight. Daylight often reveals more than it should in my view. We tend to see them - grandiose as they are - as structures built from concrete and stone. The directional, artificial illumination at night, I think, brings them to life. Especially Iwo Jima.

WE PHOTOGRAPHERS often say (perhaps because it is true) that the best photographic light is during the relatively short period from just before, to about an hour after sunrise, and then again, about an hour before sunset until shortly after the sun has completely set. "The golden hours." One of the best subjects for shooting during these times are marine scenes. I have a favorite little spot, just a couple miles up the road from my Palm Harbor, Florida home: Crystal Beach. The Crystal Beach Pier, in my opinion, makes a very nice subject to frame the warm, soft light of sunrise, as well as the golden sunset hours. The images here are just 2 of the many that I have made (and will surely make in the future) of this scene.

THE TWO images set completely different moods (or realities, according to Doc Ford). The first brings a calm, new day just before sunrise. The quality of the light is brighter (it will be too bright in the cloudless, clear blue sky almost as soon as the sun comes up above the horizon). The sand seems cleaner and lighter, and the greens bright. The reddish color of the wooden pier is apparent. The pink horizon foretells the sun soon rising. Our eyes tell us this is morning; the dawn of a new day. The second image is taken on a night that threatens to storm. The first picture feels calm. The second image is - in my view - more dramatic. The colors are deeper; less bright, and more mysterious. The mostly silhouetted pier is obviously wood, but its reddish color not now apparent. The shadows reveal just enough light for us to see the green vegetation, and the gentle wave action tells us intuitively that there is a breeze in the air.

AS I look at the shadows area in the Crystal Beach after- sunset photo, the Bay Bridge photo, above, and the Soo Locks photo, it occurs to me that there could be a lot of different approaches to presenting those areas in final image. This is just another reasons why I love this art form, and the ability it gives us to each bring our own vision. I know that if 5 people were asked to "process" one of these images, we would get 5 different interpretations of the light. Especially in the shadows. That thought brings up one other comment on the subject here. Recently, for about a month, I joined a page (supposedly) dedicated to Photoshop and Lightroom on FB. I left the group recently. I found it to have a majority of persons who had "agendas," were just using it to show their work, or in many cases gave anything from incredible ignorant, to just kind of sophomoric - and certainly myopic advice and commentary. One of the things I saw people post time after time, with nearly no regard to the question asked or advice being sought, was the old "get it right in the camera, and you don't need post processing." O.k. I don't disagree with the "get it right in the camera" sentiment. I agree with that and try (though don't always succeed) to do that. But this was - after all - supposed to be a forum dedicated to post processing software (specifically LR and PS). So yeah. Lets all get it right in the camera, but then photos still yield some great oppportunity to process for your vision!

ANOTHER "REALITY" is that there is usually much more human activity at sunset than at sunrise. In the sunset fishing pier shot, there are people on the pier mainly for the purpose of watching the sunset. On the shot of our Key West - bound boat in the early morning hours from Fort Myers Beach, Florida, there is almost no activity yet, as our part of the world was waking up.