Harness the Wind
29 March 2014 -- 88/365
Providence, Rhode Island
Parking in my usual spot at the Roger Williams National Memorial today with plans to do some street photography, I spotted this gentleman doing a bit of landscaping work on the South Main Street side of the Memorial. These types of scenes have always interested me on a variety of levels. First, every guy on the planet wants to strap on one of these battery packs, raise the nozzle, turn to their buddy and say, "Don't cross the beams!" Second, it's an amazing tribute to the laziness of the human race. Why rake when you can stand there and let the air do all the work! Third, it's the epitome of true engineering. You see, an engineer is defined as someone that will spend twenty minutes trying to find a way to do a fifteen minute task in ten. Let's be honest, here. You KNOW the guy that invented this little device only did so after locking himself in the basement to tinker with every device he could find just to avoid spending 1/2 hour in his front yard raking leaves. Yes, the leaf blower should be bronzed and given a place of prominence as a statue at the entrance to MIT!
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, boost black, and boost white. A levels adjustment and a selective dodge on the dust cloud were added in PSE.
I always look forward to your shots. Another great one. I love the composition, but made so much more interesting with your entertaining documentary. Love it
@justaspark LOL Thanks, Jule! I have a few friends who are engineers, so I always use scenes like this to show them just how lazy they are making our species!
Haha, a very funny and wonderful capture! I just had to laugh at your description! Seems that most things will be done by machine in the future! Perhaps a robot will be made to get rid of the leaves soon, better not give them too many ideas haha! :) x
Hahaha, best sentence EVER! :D
Very funny capture and cool composition :)
@lilminimonka Thanks, Brianna! Hey, thanks to drones, they even have robots to take our photos!