I was reading the latest post at Leanne Cole Photography last night about how she had been influenced by various artists but in particular by Edward Hopper – one of my favorites. It’s a good post that generated some interesting feedback.

People seem  torn between Hopper, the artist of renown, and Hopper the self-centered egotistical wife-abuser.

I can admire his work as a gift to humanity without connection to his character defects although I doubt I would have wanted to be personally acquainted.  Knowing him through his art is fine with me. And in that respect he is a giant of a human being, whose work, as a result of its later commercialization, is probably better known to the public than that of many of his peers. If you’ve never seen his tremendously popular painting Nighthawks , you almost certainly have seen one of the many parodies.

Anyway, I was culling through some of my pics this afternoon to select a couple more for my 500px gallery and I came across this one. It’s from a series of shots I took last October in early morning in eastern Montana and the lighting in it is unlike anything else I’ve ever captured. The distinct lack of shadow tends to flatten the scene, eliminating much of the depth of field. It appeared both strange and familiar to me but I could not quite put my finger on why. Now I know.

The photo is a link and if you follow it you’ll find one other of the series. I shot them both from the roadway. This one was on my left, the other on my right.  Incidentally, the photos depict a scene of utmost calm but there was a strong wind blowing that made it difficult to steady the camera. I felt lucky and pleased to have gotten what I did.