Washington Smokestack

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This is the first in a series of similarly processed images of the Mills in Lawrence (B&W, square crop) — Frankly, it is an extension of the occasional B&W work I’ve been doing. I’m just trying to get more disciplined about it.

I have a couple of recent images already done and I’ve been going back through older images of the mills to see if they fit the format. If so, I might add them to the series. But my real goal here is to shoot new images — to rethink the mills.

This one is from the Pacific Mill yard, taken on Saturday night. The smokestack is from the neighboring Washington Mill yard. When you round this corner in the Pacific yard, your eye is immediately drawn to it. I’ve shot it before but always struggled with ways to “feature” it in an image. This is my most successful attempt.

I lowered my tripod to about a foot and a half above the brick driveway and used the bricks as a subtle foreground element. That, coupled with the windows, loading dock, fire escape and other elements help to pull the eye back to the smokestack.

To give myself a goal, I’ll plan to add a new image to this series every Monday.

Hope you like it!