When I was a child, my parents had a painting that hung over our couch. I don’t remember what the painting was, but I remember I would lie on the couch and stare at that painting for hours as I imagined what it could have been like if I was a part of the scene. I still remember the peacefulness of becoming lost in that painted canvas and how much I enjoyed looking at it. When I look at this image that I captured several years ago at Two Rivers Park, I am reminded of that painting from many, many years ago.
When I arrived at the park, I had no intention of creating an image like this. Rather, I had arrived before sunrise to get some pre-dawn shots of the bridge that connects the park to the parking area, and that’s exactly what I got. Afterward, though, I walked across the bridge to the park and noticed the sky was beginning to lighten as sunrise approached. As the sky grew brighter and brighter, I began to notice there were clouds that I hadn’t noticed in the early morning darkness, and I quickly recognized the photographic possibilities.
I began taking pictures: pictures of the clouds, pictures of the reflected colors in the water, pictures of the clouds and the water. However, I kept thinking something was missing, and I began searching for that missing element. Quickly walking around the area trying to find something before the beautiful dawn light faded, I spied this bench and thought it would fit nicely in the photograph. With the light growing brighter with every passing minute, I quickly set up my tripod and camera.
Taking a couple of test shots revealed there was far more contrast between the foreground and background than I had expected and the camera sensor could capture. With time running out, I used the HDR technique to deal with the contrast issue by taking a series of thirteen pictures in which I adjusted the shutter speed in 1/3-stop increments. In Photoshop, I combined these thirteen files into a single image that opened up the darker areas in the foreground and retained the details in the brighter areas of the sky.
After working on the image for a few minutes, I realized I was imagining myself sitting on that bench watching the changing colors of the breaking dawn with the same sense of peace that I had when I looked at that old painting over my childhood couch.
What a wonderful feeling and sense of nostalgia.