Pick Up Truck Totem In Black And White

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SamSpade1941

Senior Member
There is a large Native American population where I live, they make totems out of old cars, tractors , boats and other objects. The local tribes can be quite creative in how they repurpose these old vehicles for their tribal and cultural art. Totems such as these are numerous in my area and can be found in remote areas. This is one of the better known totems. Being that it is not far from my home, I have studied and shot photographs of it from many angles. This is a version that I rendered in black and white. Please let me know what you think.

pick_up_truck_totems_revisited_black_and_white_by_samspade1941-d5aufbr.jpg


Camera Nikon D40


Date 1/23/2010 4:40PM


Shutter Speed: 1/1000th


Aperture: f/5.6


ISO: 400


Focal Length: 200mm

Processing Software : Adobe Photoshop CS 4 Macintosh
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
This is very interesting, although I thought Native Americans were more down to earth with their symbolism. I like most of the elements, I think you could have picked up some more DoF since you had plenty of shutter speed to spare. The sky is uneventful so cropping out as much as possible keeps the focus on the subject. I'd like to see more of these, I think they would make excellent HDR subjects also.

I would love to visit this spot with a polarizer and some nice clouds, the conflict between a beautiful nature scene and the old vehicles is a fantastic irony. A nice shot and a very unique subject!!
 
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SamSpade1941

Senior Member
cnyram said:
This is very interesting, although I thought Native Americans were more down to earth with their symbolism. I like most of the elements, I think you could have picked up some more DoF since you had plenty of shutter speed to spare. The sky is uneventful so cropping out as much as possible keeps the focus on the subject. I'd like to see more of these, I think they would make excellent HDR subjects also.

I would love to visit this spot with a polarizer and some nice clouds, the conflict between a beautiful nature scene and the old vehicles is a fantastic irony. A nice shot and a very unique subject!!
Click to expand...


Thank you for your comments I appreciate them, I will see if I can post the color version of this in the 365 section for you to view so you can have a comparison. I do agree it would be an interesting photo in HDR when I shot this I actually shot it with the only telephoto I have and I shot it offhand. I did not have my tri pod so shooting an HDR version with my D40 would have been very difficult without the tri pod. Concerning the American Indians they are masters of re utilization. Living here in Oklahoma especially here in this part of the state I am more of less in the center of the bulk the of Native American population of the United States. Particularly in this area we have the greatest diversity of tribes as well.

There is a large celebration that is held where I live every year and the town is informally dubbed Indian City USA. I have some other totems in my photo collection that are not quite as elaborate as this one but is very colorful and made from a Ford Pinto.


Thank you again I do appreciate your critique and commentary.
 
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