The Monument

[aprilS]

View large.

[eob]

This is very intriguing. The "monument" looks both solid and transparent at the same time. Could it be a stone obelisk with shadows of surrounding trees? Could it be a piece of gauze hanging on a line with a background showing through?

No, this is a gateway to one's imagination. For some reason it mesmerizes me in a similar way as the strange stone obelisk mesmerized the early humanoids in Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey".

[aprilS]

Thank you for your comments, eob. Both the ambiguity and similarity to the obelisk in "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- one of my favorite movies -- are exactly what intrigue me about this image, as well.

It's gratifying to know that comes across.

[habakuk]

"Dave? Can you hear me, Dave?"   I was drawn to this association, but the hint of trees and blue skies quickly set me in a totally different mode. The shadows have something very ghostly. Anthropomorhpising as we humans are, I see lots of faces. And none of them looks friendly. And that again is a tough contrast to the moody, nice nature atmosphere on the sides of the frame. There is so much tension because of those areas on the side of the monument. But I have to say, I rather opt for the shadows only here. They alone are so strong in firing up my imagination, that anything outside this context is simply distracting me. Something that would probably work for me is to mask the trees and sky and color it "outlandish"...

cheers
®

[aprilS]

Interesting comments, Roland, and I do agree with your observations.

I have some shots of the shadows alone, but didn't put effort into processing them because could only envision a one-note image.

An "other worldly" treatment of this composition, however, hadn't occurred to me. Hmmm...

Food for thought! Thank you.

[habakuk]

On third visit... I think I'd rather go for a colorization of the background and not a removal. Mainly because the perspective that is given by those lines imply huge size of the monument. Only te shadow alone might be "too small".

cheers
®