I just fell in love with this photo. At first glance, you may think it was heavily edited, but it is not. This is one photo taken in one moment: no cutting and pasting or any of that jazz. More later…
Here you can see the original image. I was at the cafe (that is, the cafe my wife and I are starting) and pretty bored watching the workers, so I decided to try to do something creative while I waited. The reflections in the windows caught my eye, and I started playing.
This is looking through two sets of windows, the first providing the drum tower reflection, and the second on which the worker is busy doing his thing. Initially, I was trying to line up the drum tower over the worker’s head, as a sort of not-so-respectful representation of the King of Thailand. For many, that will make no sense, so I will move on.
When I returned home and looked at the images on the computer, I felt like I had a very different photograph than I had intended to take. I shoot raw files instead of JPGs—that topic deserves a completely different post—and I have come to love one of the editing tools provided me in my raw photo editing software. It manipulates the luminosity (which if you ask me does not even sound like it should be a real word), meaning I can intensify or dull certain colors or specific light-intensity areas…at least, that is the best explanation I can come up with.
Honestly, I do not really know what that tool does, but as soon as I played with it some, this photograph came to life for me. I quickly had created a “heavenly” black and white realm with the drum tower reflection (still retaining some remnants of modern architecture throughout) and a more color, temporal realm.
And the masking tape “X” on the window, which was quite accidental, was the cherry on top. It suggests a rejection of solely earthly ideals, allowing our thoughts and actions to strive to live the heavenly way while still confined to this dirt and rock.
I can go a little too far with interpretation here. I have to remind myself that it was an accident in the first place. I wish I could say it was intentional. Actually, the more I look at it, the more I feel like I am looking at a psychological test or something, because sometimes certain things come out to me and sometimes something completely different. The reflections really play with my mind, but maybe I am crazy.
