This plantation styled front porch with tall white columns set back in the trees caught my attention during yesterdays walk. I’m sure it’s a haven for someone at the end of a days work. The red flowers and green shrubbery give a holiday feeling to the scene without any obvious decorations. While these older homes are beautiful to look at and would be interesting to live in, I can’t imagine many of them would be comfortable or practical to heat during a cold winter. To maintain their historical correctness they often retain the original single pane windows.
I took several shots with different exposures to find the best balance between the bright white of the woodwork and the many deep shadows. This was actually the second shot with a -1 exposure compensation.
There were so many details of branches, limbs, leaves, etc. in this shot it felt overly busy — I used Topaz Simplify in post-processing to bring down the “stress” level a bit.
Love these style houses, I agree wouldn’t want to live in them in the cold weather. Be interesting to see this location during various seasons.
I’ll have to see if I can return to near the same spot in the spring, summer and fall.
I love big porches – something I wish my house had. I haven’t had a chance to play with Simplify much, seems like a good use for it when you have busy surroundings.
I’ve found Simplify to be like most of the Topaz Tools in that it seems to either work well for an image or not at all — depending upon the image at hand. After a while you start to learn beforehand which is which. ;-)
I’m with Mark, give me a porch. I have and will always enjoy sitting outside on a porch sipping coffee/tea in the morning and lemonade in the evening. Life’s pretty darn good at those moments. I can see where the -1 EV would be needed with the hot spots in the white.
I’ve come to appreciate a small place to live in. They are less expensive to build, smaller footprint in the environment, cheaper to heat or cool and much easier to clean, which leaves more time for walks with our cameras. :-)
Yea, I love porches too. We have a small one — nothing like in this photo but still nice to sit on. I’m with you in the thought that less is more sometimes and I do appreciate have leisure time.
A superb photography and high-quality, good day and happy new year 2010
Earl, I really appreciate the warmth of the image; we just returned from Boston and when we left the hotel the temperature was only eleven degrees. Best wishes for the new year!