One of the hardest things as a photographer is to come up with an image that no one has made before. Almost everything that can be photographed has been photographed. After all it has been 169 years since Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre introduced his photographic process.
The trick is not so much to find a new subject, but to see an old one in a new way. The problem with seeing something new is even harder at home. Cartier-Bresson said "it is hard to shoot in your own country, you know at once too much and not enough."
So photographers go to great lengths to do something new. I'd seen the University's two bell towers photographed from the ground, from planes and helicopters from other buildings but the pictures never seemed to capture what I wanted to say. To make this picture I climbed the Sewanee's 200 foot water tower with a 400mm 2.8, camera, and tripod strapped to my back, before dawn.
From that airy perch I could see the towers side on peeking through the predawn fog. It is also the only place in town I have gotten decent cell phone service.
-Stephen Alvarez
Canon EOS 1v, 400 mm 2.8 Fuji Velvia
Bresslen is left, Shapard is right. I don't know why they don't have those hidden cell towers on top of one of them...
Posted by: Stephen Alvarez | April 20, 2008 at 06:00 PM
From the looks of things, one of those towers would be an excellent site for a cell phone antenna. The one on the left is Breslin?
Posted by: Psycho | April 20, 2008 at 05:33 PM