Water Tower, Vintage Style by taffy

Water Tower, Vintage Style

My get pushed challenge for this week from @simster is to work with vintage. Today's interpretation of vintage is "old Chicago" -- the industrial side of the city, forcing me out of the flower and skyline mode that I've been in for the past several days.
This was taken around Ogden and Fulton Market, an area that use to be all meat packing and warehouses. Just east of this industrial park area by a few blocks are trendy restaurants and lofts but the area is still very much in transition. These water towers are sprinkled throughout the city -- someday I'm going to get serious about photographing them and creating a collage.
@simster Second take on the idea of vintage.
May 8th, 2013  
Cool idea and challenge!
May 8th, 2013  
lovely processing
May 8th, 2013  
Love this! Great find and lovely light and composition.
May 8th, 2013  
Love it! Great interpretation.
May 8th, 2013  
I like the repetition of the lines and shapes. Did you do any specific processing to "vintage-ize" it?
May 8th, 2013  
Light, lines, composition . . . all works so well.
May 8th, 2013  
@barbsmith Thank you for commenting on several of my shots just now -- especially when you haven't even had time to post yourself! I really appreciate it -- you make me feel very good!!
May 8th, 2013  
@vankrey I did some processing using Color Efex Pro, but only to bring some of the detail up a bit more. I have another version I did with Silver efex pro that is in sepia and looks like a vintage photo -- but I thought that sort of diminishes the vintage nature of the subject.
May 8th, 2013  
@jdowd Thanks Jennifer!
@mwbc Thanks Megan!
@laughinglarkphotography Thanks Quinn!
@darylo Thanks Daryl
May 8th, 2013  
nice shot, love that deep blue sky - it sets off the water tower beautifully
May 8th, 2013  
I like the subject and processing. Nicely captured and perfect for your challenge. How do you like Color Effex Pro? I was just reading about it today. It looks interesting.
May 8th, 2013  
@ness50 @pflaume Thanks Vanessa and Lisa! Lisa, I do like Color Efex Pro. I had bought the full Nik Suite which also has Silver Efex Pro too. I don't have LR or PS (need a new computer with more memory) so it works well in combination with Aperture. I'm just learning how to 'stack' the filters and that's making it more interesting and fun. I don't know that it does more than what LR or PS does because I've never used them. It doesn't seem to be as powerful for editing.
May 8th, 2013  
@taffy Thanks for your response, Taffy! I feel the need to explore editing options. There are so many choices out there so any input helps!
May 8th, 2013  
I love this water tower - wonderful composition, and colors - nice contrast against the sky!
May 8th, 2013  
Lovely. The colours of the water tower work really well against the sky
May 8th, 2013  
@pflaume Here are few where I used it to give you a sense of the range of effects: http://365project.org/taffy/365/2013-03-11, http://365project.org/taffy/365/2013-03-10, http://365project.org/taffy/365/2013-03-31 (this one it really brought the clouds out), http://365project.org/taffy/365/2013-04-25 (this one it helped with the color of the sky a lot, as well as bringing out details in the water). So you can see, it's pretty versatile -- and that was before I learned how to do the stacking of more than one filter at a time). I don't know if it came through in my last response, but I would really recommend it.
May 8th, 2013  
@jankoos @rachelwithey Thanks Jan and Rachel! I appreciate your kind comments!
May 8th, 2013  
Oh very nice. Great capture
May 8th, 2013  
@simster Great -- thanks! My plan is to think 'vintage' all week, but I don't know if I'm creative enough to do that many variations. We'll see...
May 8th, 2013  
nice capture
May 8th, 2013  
That beautiful cloudless sky really sets of the industrial side of the shot :)
May 8th, 2013  
fab composition. love the light and colours in this shot
May 8th, 2013  
An interesting shot!
May 8th, 2013  
Wonderful! I look forward to seeing your series! I'm only now trying out the Nik Collection on trial...really loving the control and variations the filters give. It's a great addition to PS or LR :)
May 8th, 2013  
Excellent composition.
May 8th, 2013  
Nice one.. I like the composition and it works well for your theme.
May 8th, 2013  
Kim
We need to capture these old industrial pieces before they are gone. I think it would make an interesting coffee table book.
May 8th, 2013  
Great POV!!
May 8th, 2013  
Cool shot
May 8th, 2013  
Gosh! That looks like a place with some character. What a terrific shot.
May 8th, 2013  
Ann
Splendid ! : )
May 8th, 2013  
@gerry Thank you Gerry!
@willowdragon Thanks Al -- it was a really clear day.
@jaynspain Thanks Jayne!
@amrita21 Thank you Amrita!
@michaelelliott Thanks much, Michael!
@jesperani Thanks Jennifer -- it's certainly a disappearing area.
@kimshots Thanks for the kind comment! I do have fun making photo books -- a good idea for one.
@carolmw @brav Thanks Carol and Richard
@steampowered Thanks so much Paul
@foxsparrow Thanks Ann!
May 8th, 2013  
Well done Taffy! Love the vintage and aged feel here, good idea to think in vintage all week! My challenge is monochrome, I haven't been very succesful so far...!
May 8th, 2013  
Thanks Jackie! It's a challenge, but it is fun since it's framing how I look at the world this week! Good luck with monochrome -- those are definitely challenging!
May 8th, 2013  
Super gritty image. Love it.
May 8th, 2013  
Read through some of your comments above because my first thought when looking at the shot was the subject is vintage/historical but the processing is modern. I'd encourage to explore more with sepia- especially in a mode where you first shoot in color, then go to sepia but paint some of the original colors back in as I did last month with my "Vintage Violet" shot (the one with my baby picture and a little violet next to it if you remember- haha as if my pictures are the only ones you look at!). Sepia really says vintage (to me) but I can see where you don't want your shot to just look like an old photo. So, again, I'd encourage you to explore working with sepia in some contemporary ways to see if you can capture the feel of it without the imitation factor.
May 9th, 2013  
@amandal Thanks Amanda!
May 9th, 2013  
@olivetreeann Thanks Ann -- stay tuned! There will be more of the traditional vintage processing before week's end. Thanks so much for taking the time to encourage me re the sepia processing. And I do remember your shot -- loved it!
May 9th, 2013  
Wonderful comp and processing!
May 9th, 2013  
@colie Thanks Colie! BTW, that ink shot is really interesting!
May 9th, 2013  
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