"Shadow Illuminated" by Wes Aldridge
I was driving to a place called Sugar Creek (Amish country in these parts) and I glance over my shoulder and almost wreck when I see this giant monument rising high above an old cemetery in an open field. There was no doubt I had to shoot it. For some reason, crosses, crucifixes, religious symbols and the like always catch my photographic eye. I can't really explain why. Most of the time I shoot these things because in the present situation they are kind of eerie and make me a little uncomfortable, sketched out if you will.
I have posted several different images of crosses but they are in no way meant to be any kind of a statement of religion. They are simply things my camera has recorded and I feel like sharing them.
The shot was done at ISO 100 with an aperture of f/6.3 at 1/4000th of a second with a circular polarizing filter. The settings were exposed in the general range for the sky, but the most important aspect of the photo for me was achieving a perfectly black silhouette of the cross against the sky. I was shooting directly into the sun, which of course gives the solar flare and hot highlight spot at the top of the cross. The CP filter dropped about two more f-stops of light and made the strange "heavenly" silver effect in the clouds. This shot is how I envisioned it. I am happy it turned out the way it did.
