I made a visit to the town of Julian, CA this past weekend. Julian began as a gold mining town in 1870 or so. The mine is long since shut down, although tours still operate - and are quite informative and engaging. Strewn about the area surrounding the Eagle and High Peak Mine are the shells of various vehicles - wagons, trucks, tractors...and a few I can't quite identify. Among my favorites are these two beauties:
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| Decaying Cars, Eagle Mine, Julian CA |
I like the composition here. Simple. Strong. The feeling I had at the time is that Mother Earth is reclaiming its resources, slowing engulfing the remains of these machines. And I loved the rust on the truck in the rear. What was in camera didn't convey my feelings during the shot, so adjustments were in order.
Beyond basic exposure and sharpening, a global curves adjustment is applied, bumping the red midtones and lowering the green midtones to really accentuate the rust. Then, a second curves adjustment just to the background to replenish the greens lost to the prior curve. I still wanted more of the rust coming through, so another global color bump to the red tones only. To add texture to the rust, definition is brushed to just the cars.
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| Curves mask, replenishing greens of the background |
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| Definition mask, adding texture to car rust |
Final touches are some burning to the hood of the foreground car, and a subtle vignette to pull the eyes to the center.
This time around, here's the initial and final photographs. Common across both images is the crop, exposure, sharpening, and vignette.
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| Initial |
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| Final |
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