The last remnant of a large industrial complex from late 1800s sits along the Milwaukee River on the East Side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This warehouse is to be torn down in the near future.
These three seed pods are part of a collection of found objects my wife keeps in a little bowl in our bedroom. While I don't really know where she found them, after an internet search, I believe they are from a London Plane tree, which is a hybrid of the Oriental Plane and American Sycamore trees. Of course, that matters not when it comes to this image - I just thought they were cool and would make a great photograph.
I wanted to capture something "summer-y" and minimalist to commemorate the impending end of summer and the slow downhill slide to the dead of winter. What better way than with a nice sandy beach and a seashell or two? The only problem with that is I'm in Milwaukee and nowhere near the ocean. Oh sure, we have Lake Michigan. And with the right light and conditions, the lake water can look just like a Caribbean beach in a photograph. But that wasn't today. What to do? My solution involved a white foam core backdrop, natural light from a window, and a pen light. I was planning on creating the blue sky and sandy beach colors in Photoshop, but as luck would have it, the blended colors of the natural and artifical lights worked together well to create the two-toned look in camera. All I had to do was enhance what was there. The light from the window camera left acted as a large warm softbox. With just that natural light, the window just barely lit the scene at a 20 second exposure. So I used the pen light to "light paint" the shell and fill in the rest of the lighting. Finally in Photoshop, along with my normal color-correction and contrast adjustments, I added just a slight bit of texture.
