Alley Detail

The alley where this was shot opens onto St. John's Lane where I sometimes park when downtown. Each time I am in the area the walls of the lane catch my eye. I'm generally not a fan of street art or graffiti, but the combination of painted over brickwork, rusted metal and predominately monochrome spray paint is compelling.

I have tried to capture the gritty feel of this back alley before (not posted on Blipfoto) by attempting to photograph the entire scene - difficult to do from the street and without a wide angle lense - and then rendering it in contrasty black & white. Today I walked further up the lane and concentrated on one or two specific areas.

My usual approach would be to accent the contrast between metal pipes and the texture of the spray painted brick. This time I tried a different approach and softened the general area around the oil tank vents while leaving the metal parts relatively unedited.

Shot using 645 Pro in 'Q mode' on an iPhone 4S and then edited in Snapseed on an iPad using the 'Tune Image', 'Details', 'Center Focus' and 'Drama' tools.