Watching the sky colors change and shadows grow at sunset is one of my favorite ways to spend time.
White Rock Lake and the Dallas Skyline at Sunset
Category: Uncategorized
A Statue at Fair Park and the Ever Changing Light
The statues along the Esplanade are some of my favorite photo subjects at Fair Park in Dallas. I went to the State Fair of Texas yesterday and took the picture below. I usually go when the weather is nice and sunny, but it was overcast yesterday and the first time I have taken a picture of the statues in the flat natural light that a cloudy day provides. It is much different than all my past photos of the statues I have taken in high contrast sunlight. These statues have stood in the virtually the same place since the Fair Grounds opened in 1936, but the natural and artificial light sources that illuminate their surfaces have been changing ever since and with that how they are perceived visually. I first saw these statues as a child, and see them differently today as an older adult than I did then. All this reminds me of the quote below from the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. It is a quote that increasingly comes to mind as the years pass for me.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”
This statue is the work of Lawrence Tenney Stevens and was created for the first State Fair of Texas when it opened in 1936.
History in the Moment
Often when taking a picture, it is merely to capture the image of a subject I find interesting. The image visually captures that moment, often in a fraction of a second. What I don’t know exactly at the time, and only discover later is how I captured a piece of history as it was and will never be seen again. The level of importance of that image and it’s historical significance varies and is subjective, but what I find fascinating is how the visual image of that moment in time stays exactly the same, and yet how it is perceived can change greatly as the history surrounding it evolves.
