December 01, 2008

Photo of the Week: Dec. 2, 2008

HOW I GOT THE SHOT: I've probably burned a barrel of oil unsuccessfully chasing after rainbows during the fleeting moments between sun and storm. In this week's photo I did find a rainbow of sorts, on a scintillating fall morning when not a single drop of rain fell from the sky. Imagine for an instant a rolling hillside speckled with white rocks, neatly planted rows of fruit trees, a winding, dirt road, a distant cow shed and an electrical tower. Amid this collage of nature and industry, between the dusty road and the rusted carcass of a bus, lay a sea of colorful leaves that arced through my viewfinder like a rainbow bending its beauty across the horizon. I found a cluster of rocks which provided enough elevation to shoot down on the mass of leafy color and blot out the unsightly surroundings. A zoom lens allowed me to isolate my target and trim the strips of color into nearly equal parts.
This photo resembles a work of pointillism. The great impressionist masters understood that the interplay between color and light intricately represented on canvas brings the viewer's eye to a point of appreciation which is rarely matched, even by the physical world. Digital camera sensors and some modern printing presses, reproduce this technique using red, blue and green pixels in order to build the proper color relationships as seen by the human eye. At the right time and place, this trio of visual workhorses blend to reveal the ever-elusive pot of gold.

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