Channeling Diane
Canon 5D Mark II, 135mm F/2.0, f/7.1, 1/4000, iso 100
My frequent visitors know that I am a huge fan of Diane Varner's work. Her work is something I aspire to. Both her vision, her composition, and her post work. I'm generally impressed with every image she puts up on her blog.
And I was just in her home town. Although we were not able to get together, as I drove the streets and visited areas around the town, I found myself wondering what she might be doing, was she out shooting? She had emailed me some of her favorite haunts. But sometimes things don't go as expected and I ended up not doing much shooting there. A pity, but stuff happens, as they say.
But I did visit a lighthouse in Monterey, and her work immediately came to mind. My visit there was prompted by this post on Andre's very helpful CA Photo Scout website. Alas, I arrived too late to go on a tour, and encountered a locked gate. As I considered my options, I saw a composition in front of me that reminded me of something Diane might shoot. The light was very bright, as you can see by the shutter speed. I tried to think of how she might post process this one. I chose this lens for the distance I was from the structure, and moved side to side until I had this composition which I felt did justice to both the lighthouse and the tree.
In Lightroom, a preset called "PH Surreal Moment" did most of the work for me to achieve this look. A further minor saturation adjustment, and one called "dark tones" and in about one minute I had the look I dreamed Diane would come up with.
