Silent Remindersby
NeuferlandComment by Neuferland:
This was originally taken for the Freedom II challenge but was my first DQ because the one I entered had an illegal border on it. This is one of my favorite shots but there are a few things that bother me as well.
I like the overall shot, the composition of the shot, the way the headstones lead me out from the front to the back and the lighting was unreal that afternoon, it was later in the day, the sun was setting and I was driving around the circle in the veteran's section of Woodlawn Cemetary when the light on the front headstone just caught my eye. I stopped the car, rolled down the passenger window and started shooting. I choose this for the challenge because it reminded me that because of the men and women willing to go into harms way is the reason we have freedom today. And it doesn't matter if they were killed in action or died years later in the safety of their own home, the fact they were willing to go and be a part of protecting us was enough for me.
What bothers me about the shot, I had to do a lot of burning on the back ground above the headstones to get rid of a distracting fence and some trees. I could have/should have cropped it a little tighter on the top and it wouldn't have hurt the overall balance of the shot, I could have also cropped it a little tighter on the left, again, leaving out the distracting headstone to the left of the main focus, leaving an even crisper line for the viewer to follow.
This ended up being one of my favorites and I have a feeling that if I hadn't screwed up with the border it would have been my highest scoring shot to date. I had two copies made, one for fair last year and I took one down to Woodlawn Cemetary and left it on the caretaker's doorstep, no note, nothing, just thought they could either use it on display or find the family of the main headstone and give it to them if they wanted it. :)
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