Life As A Fire Hydrant
Monday, December 7, 2009 at 6:30AM 
Today I thought I'd give you all one of those "Choice" days. So above is the color version of a fire hydrant that is at the end of a street in Castle Glen Estates in Big Bear Lake. I think this little guy probably has one of the best views that any fire hydrant could ever wish for. Of course he does have some disadvantages too, one being just how cold and windy it is from that view point during the winter months. On top of that he was just recovering from the first winter storm to hit Big Bear and as you can see in the distance the next one is fast approaching, up over the dam and along the lake towards him. I can not even describe just how clear, sunny and absolutely bitterly cold it was in Big Bear last week when I took this photograph, but hey I was there to take photos and have fun, so what the heck!
And so on to the second photograph. This one is the same photo just with the fire hydrant left in color and the rest converted into black & white. As always click on the photo if you want to see a larger version. Also feel free to use any of these photos free of charge for non-commercial use.
Reader Comments (3)
I like this picture more because it automatically shifts focus immediately to the fire hydrant. While the color picture is breathtaking, there is a lot to see there along with the fire hydrant. As usual, both of them are very beautifula and well shot.
Martin,
Looks great! What was your f-stop? The focus on the hydrant and the gound around it is really sharp, but the background is just soft enough. I really like the shadows in the snow in the B & W conversion, it handles the contrast much better. This probably does not need to be asked, but did it start as an HDR?
Kurt
Kurt,
Yes it did start out life as an HDR and then desaturated in Photoshop and I brought the color of the hydrant back. I did two version when I took this one. The first being F11 and then I thought that maybe some bokeh in the back of the scene would be nice. The best my 24-105 lens can do is F4, but that appears to be about the right amount so I got lucky. And actually the really lucky part was the fact that the initial photo didn't have the fire hydrant, than I decided it needed some foreground interest and the fire hydrant was there staring me in the face.