Working Light, by Stephen Anstey:
How DPNow Pictures of the Day are selected
See the previous POTD from Tuesday, 12th Dec.
Stephen Anstey is the only person I'm aware of to admit to being DPNow 'addicted', so much so, it's emblazoned on his forum avatar graphic. Stephen is a long standing friend of DPNow and volunteered to help, unpaid, behind the scenes, soon after we started our first discussion forum, some four years ago. He's been a pillar to the site and the forum, ever since.
But there is no favouritism here! The DPNow forum moderators, including Stephen, have had to wait their POTD turn, but I'm sure you will agree that Stephen's picture, featured today, is no middle-league filler. It's a superb black and white study of an engineer at work, apparently fabricating a valve for a desalination plant. It has been discussed at length on the DPNow forum, too.
Stephen says: "The photo was taken whilst on a job at an engineering works near Bradford. I had been asked to take some photos of a new valve being made there for a desalination plant in the Middle East. During a recce for the job I watched the men making some final adjustments to the valve which was actually lying on its side. The man in the picture was in a position so that sunlight from a ceiling window bathed him in light. I quickly ran of a series of shots of him and some others working, as the scene appealed to me.
"However as with much of my personal work, I worked on the image in Photoshop to achieve a slightly different result and feel to the photo I had chosen. After using Adobe Camera Raw, I converted to mono using Gradient Map and then some minor adjustment to levels were applied with a subtle vignette to keep attention towards the centre."
Working Light, by Stephen Anstey:
Click on the picture to see a larger view in Stephen's gallery.
(Free forum/gallery registration required)
Stephen adds: "I particularly like the way the man and his work are highlighted by the sunlight as he leans into the frame, and the way it plays on the lifting chains. There is somehow plenty to attract the eye, yet people often miss the other worker in the shadows. I did consider burning him out but felt in the end it added something to the shot."
Stephen supplied a couple of picures to give some idea of how big the valve was that the engineer was working on.
The picture was taken using a Canon EOS-10D -1/125th, f/4, Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8 L, at f=67mm (107mm equivalence). These days, Stephen packs a Canon EOS-1D Mark IIn, which is put to regular use in his work as a commercial photographer, based in Wakefield, Yorkshire.
Stephen's DPNow gallery is packed with excellent pictures that show off a very versatile repertoire. Are you up to the task of being selected for the DPNow POTD? All you need to do is exhibit your pictures on the free DPNow photo gallery and maybe we'll be in touch!
