in our town there is an old naval base from the 1700s. the historic buildings are well kept and now used for cultural activities and governmental offices. the grounds are now a park with lots of relics from those days.
one of the more interesting items still standing is a conspicuous crane which was used to load and unload sailing vessels docked in the canal.
the distinct gears attracted me
so i went in for a closer look
actually i had photographed the crane earlier and even posted a few shots on hive once before
but in the sun there is so much contrast and shadow that i waited for a cloudy evening for this series that i took last week.
my camera is a lumix fz300 with a variety of preset options which i have only begun to explore.
for the first two shots i used the old days setting and for most of the rest either the low key or impressive art setting.
all editing was done on the free version of photoshop express, principally applying varying degrees of high contrast, clarity, vibrance and saturation while lowering the exposure and whites, yet increasing highlights
fortunately it is possible to photograph the main workings of the crane from all sides. from this angle the base vaguely resembles a human face with no mouth
there is plenty of detail both in the wood and steel
that shows the mark of time and the elements
nuts,bolts and gears with rust and algae and here even a single thread from a spider web
just a few monochromes
the wood is occasionally treated with creosote which builds up over time and after some years renders a golden patina in the sunlight but just recently a new coat was put on so it is quite black except for where the seagulls have left their mark.
here the steel has gotten both creosote drippings and seagull droppings
there are far more angles for nice close up shots than i originally expected.
and with the different settings of both the camera and editing program it is hard to choose which are the best shots
i like both of these
and these
right side
left side
and zoomed out
even with all these shots i have not exhausted the possibilities here so i may be back with more sometime in the future
