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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twelve: Using color to express ideas > Mural, San Jacinto Street, Austin, Texas, 2009
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01-JUN-2009

Mural, San Jacinto Street, Austin, Texas, 2009

An enormous mural dominates the scene here, depicting various symbols close to the heart of Austonians. The colors tell the story here, offering a purplish, pinkish homage to the city and its western heritage. Using a 24mm wideangle lens, I was able to get about half the mural into the frame from across the street. I waited for someone to walk below the mural in order to give it a sense of scale. Finally, a pedestrian entered my frame, and I caught him just as the diagonal thrust of his leg echoed the diagonal thrust of the huge fence post that anchors the mural behind him.

Leica D-Lux 4
1/500s f/3.5 at 12.1mm iso80 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis12-Jun-2009 01:15
Thanks, Tim -- I originally saw the eroding paint behind the pedestrian as an eyesore, a blight on an otherwise lovely scene. I have been trying my best to ignore it. Should i have cloned it out? No, that would require more skill that I possess, and beside, it is just not right to do such a thing in an image bursting with truth. Should I have cropped it out? No, that would have taken the Longhorn and three bison out along with it. So I left it as is, and now you have given me a reason to like this decay. You make me see a ghostly line of stick figures here, following the man, as you say, into the scene. Thanks.
Tim May11-Jun-2009 17:01
The eroding paint behind the pedestrian seem almost ghostlike as they follow him into the scene.
Phil Douglis08-Jun-2009 21:24
You are in a lyrical mood today, Rose. I wished that I could have photographed a yellow rose here, instead of red ones, which would have given you still another song to sing, a song true to your own name!
sunlightpix08-Jun-2009 04:41
The cactus flowers appear to me like a hat or bonnet atop a blue face. More eyes of Texas upon us :-)
Phil Douglis07-Jun-2009 22:47
Thanks, Ann, for noticing the relationship in both space and form between the figure on the street, and the artwork on the wall. The artist composed the mural, and I incorporated his or her composition into my own, as well as creating an incongruous scale relationship here.
Ann...07-Jun-2009 21:14
That is one awesome mural. Your composition is perfect!
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