Waterwall

Click image to view at 1000 pixels wide

The interactions of water always offer such prismatic fascinations, and teamed with the reflectivity of stainless steel and a sunny day, how can you go wrong? The figures provide scale and a human element that counterpoints the interactions of physics in the background. This is the waterwall and fountains at Sheffield Railway Station, which I photographed on a sunny afternoon in November 2007. The image was sharpened 5% and colour was enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Classic Idea, Fresh Interpretation

Click image to view at 800 pixels wide

Water gardens were a luxury landscape idea in the ancient world, especially in hot climates. Think the Trevi Fountains of Rome, the water gardens prized by the Moghul emperors of India, or their technical predecessors of 12th century Chorasmia. Flowing water is dynamic, both exciting and relaxing in one ever-mobile package. Water also offers photographers amazing opportunities to capture the scintillance of light through a prismatic, refractive and reflective substance, not to mention properties of time-exposure streaking and the halo effects of spray. This is the water feature in the forecourt of Sheffield Railway Station, photographed from just outside the building and looking in the general direction of Sheffield Hallam University, in November 2007. The stainless steel waterwall, the fountains and trickling terraces are a thoroughly modern interpretation of an eternal artistic dynamic that appeals to the human consciousness with light, movement and energy, but all in a precisely controlled way, creating the treasured illusion of the human conquest of nature. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The Tower and the Trees

Click image to view at 800 pixels wide

There was something irresistible about this vision of a man-made structure groping skyward through the primal forest. Not so much that exact dichotomy -- a microwave tower rising over palm trees would have fitted that description well enough -- but it's combination with elements that speak to our social memory... A gothic-architecture tower that looks like some elaborate church steeple (though I never found out what the tower actually is), rising out of a deciduous wood at the beginning of winter: now that harks to legend. I took this shot at maximum optical telephoto across a valley, from a steep street in Sheffield, UK, looking directly over the railway station and up the far side of the valley to this forest, where this tableau echoes the past in contrast to modern Sheffield on the near side. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic; November 2007. Image by Mike.