The Channel and the Mill

Photographers in the know tell the rest of us plods to take a break after editing our photos because it is quite likely that we have overdone things and won't love our edits once we return for another look. The tendency is to over-process as our eyes become used to seeing the photo develop, so when we return for a second look we see them with fresh and more discerning eyes.

I had this experience in reverse because once I returned to my photos I liked them better than before. Of course, I was looking at them fullscreen that time, which would be sure to make a difference. 

Let me set up the shoot before I show you the photos.

You may recall that I did a few early morning shoots in the wonderful weather that we had last week. (By the way, I awoke to a light dusting of snow this morning and temperatures at the freezing point.) On those travels I had seen, in passing, that the early sun hitting the back of the mill might be a worthwhile subject. The problem was finding unobscured  sightlines — at least it was a problem for gimpy old me who requires a fairly easy access.

On the previous day I scouted for a vantage point and found a spot that I could get to just off the trail where I would be shooting across a channel* of the river. I returned the next morning, Sunday because I wanted to be sure to capture the photo before the trees leafed out to obscure the mill on the island* between that main river, which you have seen in other photos, and this secondary channel.

Here are the first two photos, edited to taste and each edited a little differently if you'll notice the colour of the water in each. I wanted to make the river look a little sunnier in the second image.

I switched the camera to landscape/horizontal mode to include more of the river with two dominant trees (left and right) to frame the scene. As I look at it, I think the photo would be improved by cropping away half of the sky. Photos of half sky and half land usually don't work all that well.

And that was it. For better or worse, I had taken the photos that I had in mind. However, when I got back to my car and looked over my shoulder, I  saw the mill through a bit of a gap just off the parking lot. All of the branches serve to add an almost unique painterly texture.

You never know what you're going to get when you conceive of a plan, but for me, the results were acceptable enough to have made it a worthwhile outing. 

* MacArthur Island is a product of human engineering. The channel that you see in these photos was dug to allow part of the Mississippi River to flow past the MacArthur Mill in order to turn the waterwheel. The mill is currently early in the process of being repurposed into condominiums

** This recently-posted photo shows the split between the river on the left and the constructed channel on the right flowing toward the mill.