Power Plant Image 1: Insulators, Cooling Towers

Posted by Twelvebit (Victoria, United States) on 17 December 2007 in Business & Industry.

This week I intend to post images taken at a power plant. I got a late start today because I didn't get a chance to prepare images over the weekend. I think this image works equally well in both color and B&W (or doesn't work equally well), but I finalized on B&W because the real emphasis is on shape and form.

I look at image color in three broad categories asking myself whether: 1) color adds to the image; 2) color is neutral, neither adding to, or subtracting from, the image, or 3) color actually takes something away. Sometimes these questions may be answered with only the "graphic" content in mind, but I suspect that most of the time they can only be answered in the context of what the image is about, what is intended visually, or what meaning, if any, the image is intended to convey.

Painter and designer Joseph Albers is claimed to have said: "shape is the enemy of color." I don't think my use of this concept here is exactly what he meant, but in the final analysis I don't believe color adds anything to this particular image so it is better to let shape speak for itself.

I started taking the images I'll be posting this week as the sun set one evening, and finished well after it had gotten dark. Color isn't much of a factor in the images captured after dark because they're already nearly monochromatic, and converting them to B&W is barely more than changing the tint of a duo tone image.

VFXY Photos | Cool Photoblogs | Listed on Photoblogs.org