Photo 101: Where are you, pop of color?

/ March 16, 2015

Cheri sent out instructions about color this first day of week three in Photo 101. She wanted us to find images that popped. She wanted us to study the angles. She wanted us to consider the lighting.

I drove downtown from the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, running other errands but with an eye for that special splash.

Lesson 11 is handcuffed by a gray day. Surprise, surprise.

Craft Brewery.

Standing out on Leavenworth Avenue in Syracuse, N.Y.

Across the boulevard from where I bank, I spotted the near-red sign of one of Syracuse’s craft breweries. After my business, I drove to Leavenworth Avenue, parked, and worked my iPhone 6 for the best lighting and angle. Soft pop. Mild satisfaction.

Directory of the Tech Garden?

I am where?

Across the street from the Onondaga County War Memorial, I spotted an orange question mark adjacent to a white exclamation point situated next to a building directory. Yeah, I still am unsure of its exact significance, because it is completely barren of any words. Its nearest building houses the Syracuse Technology Garden on another side, though, so maybe … My most interesting take came from flat on the ground, best to get the orange against the gray sky. Medium satisfaction on the pop.

Give us your money, three ways.

Give us your money, three ways.

On the way to my car, I noticed the blue sign of the parking pay station dotted below with the red of a how-to explanation. Again I went low for the sky backdrop, and chose a vertical orientation to make the most of the sign’s shape. But I had a feeling I may have taken a lateral step on the pop-ometer.

Syracuse underground parking.

Enter if you dare.

Across the street, though, I saw the red arch. It was the most vivid color of my afternoon, and the most interesting shape, too. It signaled the entrance to an underground parking garaged. My favorite angle was dead-on. It looked positively spooky. Enter at your own risk. I had found my personal pop of riveting color in the right setting.

Would you go for a beverage from the brewery on Leavenworth Avenue? What do you think the orange sign signifies? What’s your favorite photograph, and why?

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56 thoughts on “Photo 101: Where are you, pop of color?”

  2. Nice work. My apologies. I hadn’t seen your work for a while, so I became concerned. Went to your actual blog and there was no lapse. Looked at my blog list and discovered that I had unfollowed you.

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  5. I like your pops of color (and I am enjoying the photo 101 stuff) – anyhow, I think the sign signifies that college basketball needs to change (the exclamation make and the question mark) – and yes, I would try a beer from this brewery… love the name

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    • The master brewer has been studying his craft a long time, no, Y? 🙂 Thank you for enjoying my Photo 101 stuff, learned photographer such as yourself. Your comments on the Orange sign are fun, because I don’t think it has one thing to do with our local basketball squad! Your sentiment is well taken, though.

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      • well I guess I just have basketball on my mind because all this bracket talk around here – oh – and we just watched ESPN’s episode on Christian Laettner – and I had NO idea he was from Buffalo! very cool….
        ( here http://talkintv.buffalonews.com/2015/03/17/many-reasons-to-love-espns-i-hate-christian-laettner/)

        Oh – and speaking of photography – I am setting up my day 5 for the B & W challenge and plan to link you and the Doobs for my final day blogger link up (not sure if you have seen this challenge going around – or if you have done it already) but basically you share five posts with a black and white photo – it should be five days in a row – but many of us have adapted the posting to make it fit our blog schedules – and then with each post – you link another blogger – and some opt out of linking a single blogger, but I actually like it because it has that interconnected touch – I dunno – anyhow, you can decline (no pressure)- but just giving you a heads up the invite is coming…

        good day to u bialczak!

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  7. I like the entrance to the underground parking garage. I like the lines, angles, the sky and drab buildings. The red color pops out against the drabness and cold slabs of concrete. Even the cars are dull, not a bright one in sight. It would be spooky to enter there and go down to the garage. So, it’s the red arch that lights up.

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  8. I think I like the brewery sign best. Just because it’s there, and it kind of doesn’t feel like it should be. Kind of like everything else around it is dull. And it decided to have a little life about it’s self. 😉

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  14. Oh to have seen you on the ground taking a photo and speaking of such photo that is EXACTLY the summation of my experience at Customs. Bravo, cuz! Now you KNOW what that sign means. LOL The parking lot, I agree positively spooky. LOVED the angle of the parking pay station sign, whatever that is. And the sign regarding middle age? Is that not us, or are we over that line in the sign? LOL Good for you getting those pops on a grey day. LOVED this post, for with it you brought COLOR into my Life!! Thank you! (((HUGS))) cuz from the west

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    • Thank you Amy Rose. We are not past Middle Ages, neither one of us, and don’t you forget it!

      The parking pay station is one machine they put in the middle of block. Every car, you must go to that one machine, put in your quarters, a credit card or wave the bar code on your Smart Phone, and then get the paper slip to put on your dash stating the time you are good to go. The max is two hours at a time.

      I’m glad my photo class is putting some hop into your life, my photo genious cuz to the west. 🙂

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  15. I like the parking garage entrance photo Mark. The others are excellent – lots of elements of interest – and yet the parking garage strikes me the hardest hitting for color and suggestion. After all, there is a whole world down there underground – and all we see is the entrance. It is enticing. Plus it is a common scene in a city and we never see pictures. Did you know that in Kansas city the limestone deposits under the city are great mining and then the remaining caverns are used for commercial and business purposes? There is a whole other city under there.http://www.progressiveengineer.com/features/businessUnderground.htm This is a very green way of doing business and is catching on in other cities as well.

    Cool pics Mark.

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  18. I think I like the one for the Brewery the best. It kind of tells it’s own story, makes you wonder what a brewery is doing beyond a garage door in an unassuming building. By the orange sign, do you meant the question mark that stands above/next to the map of Syracuse? Definitely ‘where the hell am I?”

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