Creepy Stately

manaheim · Sep 5, 2008

C&C Welcome as always. This is a house about 7 miles from my house out in Haaaaaaaahvahd Massachusetts. I've admired it for years and they had the good sense to illuminate the house and the tree. On a lark I decided to go out and grab a few shots tonight.

I actually meant to go out and get just the tree, but theres all those leaves on it which kinda ruin the tree shot, so I'll go back when the leaves are gone for that.

Some dude scared the CRAP out of me when I was there, too. :lol:

I was in my car on the side of this very dark road (we live in the middle of nowhere out here) and was getting my stuff ready. I got out of the car and was about to turn towards the house when I noticed a dark and unmoving silhoette of some dude standing across the road. I about jumped out of my skin.

"H-h-h-hullo?"

Turns out it was the guy from across the street, checking up on me to see if I was ok. Nice of him but DAMN... I didn't really need my heart anyway, right? Sheesh.

Anyway, enough of my rambling... here's the pic.

icassell · Sep 5, 2008

I like it very much. Lighting makes it very creepy! Is this a private residence or is there a story behind it? Isn't there some sort of observatory in Harvard? I lived in Woostuh for a year in the mid 80's

manaheim · Sep 5, 2008

Thanks! I *think* it's a private residence. It had a red Acura Integra parked in the driveway, though obviously all the interior lights were off. Not sure. I left them a note with my business card in case they would like a copy of the picture of their house, so maybe I'll get some more info.

You live in wooshtah, eh? Cool!

I was just down that way a couple days ago. Lot of potential interesting pictures in that city, but not sure I wanna roam around alone there.

icassell · Sep 5, 2008

That would be cool -- it would be nice if they would answer your note.

Yeah ... I did my internship at U. Mass Med. Center in '86 ... learned to sail on Lake Quinsigamond ...

kundalini · Sep 5, 2008

I like the angle you caught of the house, but IMO the lighted tree trunk and the patch of ground at the lower left are distracting. Also the tree branch really takes away from the roofline. Any chance of getting closer, using a wider lens and using that lens correction software (from another thread) to work out the distortion?

dl4449 · Sep 5, 2008

I like it the way the light shines on the tree. But i am not sure about the light on the left side of the roof. For me it is a little distracting.

Troy

manaheim · Sep 5, 2008

icassell said:
That would be cool -- it would be nice if they would answer your note.

Yeah ... I did my internship at U. Mass Med. Center in '86 ... learned to sail on Lake Quinsigamond ...

Nice! Yeah, that would be neat... esp. since I'm trying to get into the residential photography business. Gotta break into new areas.

kundalini said:
I like the angle you caught of the house, but IMO the lighted tree trunk and the patch of ground at the lower left are distracting. Also the tree branch really takes away from the roofline. Any chance of getting closer, using a wider lens and using that lens correction software (from another thread) to work out the distortion?

I did try a closer shot, but I didn't care for the result. The tree adds something (for me, anyway).

I considered cloning out that little random bush spot on the left there. I may do that.

dl4449 said:
I like it the way the light shines on the tree. But i am not sure about the light on the left side of the roof. For me it is a little distracting.

Really? Interesting!

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

manaheim · Sep 6, 2008

I realized last night I didn't even look at some of my other shots, and remembered I took this one. Odd.

Curious what you guys thought about this one since there is more of the tree.

btw, look carefully on the left there... thats a streetlight way off down the road. Not sure how I feel about the crop, but that was interesting so I figured I would show you guys before I cropped it out.

Resin42 · Sep 6, 2008

Liking both of these, probably the first more so although the light catching the powerlines in the second works for me even though it shouldn't.

invisible · Sep 6, 2008

In the second one, the tree becomes the subject, and the house gets a bit relegated to the background. This second image is also maybe too dark, enough for the roof and the sky to basically become one. Regarding the power lines (never a pretty subject), in this particular case I think they work, perhaps for two reasons: the uneven way they are lighted (I like it), and also because they somehow fill a black space that otherwise would have been too big, streetlight and all.

manaheim · Sep 6, 2008

Interesting! Really a lot of very interesting feedback on this one. Thank you all.

I may try to brighten the second one up. I still think I like the first one better... but both feel like maybe they're not *quite* dead on... hmmm...

I may have to go back.