Might Meet the Devil

It’s been inappropriately hot. I know, I’ve complained about the heat many times, but this recent run is just ridiculous. It was 106 today, and that wasn’t the guesstimated heat index, that was real thermometer. Since we are near 15 hours of daylight right now, it makes it difficult to be both a morning shooter and evening shooter. During the week, most of my camera time comes in the evening since I’m incapable of being an early riser. But these evenings have been abhorrent, so for a while, I’m reaching into the archives. Heading out in 100+ heat and sweating profusely hasn’t been rewarding for the photos in harsh and hazy lightings, and the accompanying bug bites.

I’ve shot this truss bridge a few times, and think I’ve posted similar before. The image on the left shows some hobo code. The text points to the obvious, the bridge being a scary walk. The symbol, as found in other places, means the walk is one-wa,y and the notches in the arrow-line mean dangerous. The more notches, the more dangerous. That’s not official hobo code, just my translation from seeing it here and around other difficult pathways.  Below, and not shown, is a chalked depiction of a cat with X marks over the eyes and mouth, meaning, “No Catwalk.” This ties into the dangerous walk aspect as the bridge is a sure-shot and quick way to switch city areas, but the short-cut comes at a price. With the processing I choose for this one, and the nature of “the walk,” I felt this is one of those liminal spaces of decision that reaps of folklore, of where an inspiring wayfarer would come at midnight and meet some seedy character over access to the bridge. In the deep South, this is one of those places where the devil hangs out according to legends. It’s a place where both civil law (no trespassing) and unwritten street law (scary walk, no access) intersect, resulting in a no-man’s land.

This is my first official diptych. I’ve really enjoyed the square formatting lately, which led me to thinking about the diptych and triptych form. I find it handy for when you want to show off a little more, but also feel that two separates are enough. Maybe it is a post-modern panoramic where it is fragmented into points. Anyway, I processed both of these in Lightroom initially and then popped them out to PS for the framing. I used my aforementioned “Delta Dust” preset, except this one is pre-black and white conversion so a few tones on the warm side are retained.