Florence Martus statue, Savannah

[Dennis Bishop]

This image started with a series of shots at the Savannah, Georgia, waterfront in the historic part of the city. A statue has been erected in a park, there, commemorating Florence Martus. Although there appears to be some uncertainty about the events, the story goes something like this. Florence was born in 1868. When she was 19 years old, she started waving at both incoming and departing ships, using what's been termed a handkerchief during the day and a lantern at night. If accounts are correct, she continued waving at ships for 44 years without missing a single one. During at least part of that time, she was apparently accompanied by her collie. It's been speculated that she'd fallen in love with a sailor and was waving for him. Supposedly, the captain of the ship that later delivered the statue refused payment because he could remember seeing her waving from the shore.

I wanted in the worst way to capture a shot with a ship in the background, but none came by while I was there, and there were other places to go.

Nikon D3S, ISO 200, f/2.8, eight-exposure HDR, zoom at 26mm

The park where the statue is located is nicely landscaped with fences and plantings, and the statue is on a platform that sits on a brick plaza edged by brick walls. Although this angle showed the shipping channel, there were some fairly new buildings in the background. I decided to save only the statue and add something representing how it might've felt a hundred years ago.

processing highlights

• Flypaper Textures -- One was used for the sky; another for the ground and water. Both were subsequently altered a good bit with the ground/water being free-transformed with the warp feature enabled.
• Topaz Simplify -- Watercolor II, two layers, one at 100% opacity and masked from the statue, the other at 66% and applied only to the statue (masked from the eye of the dog)
• Photo Filter adjustment layer -- Warming 85, two layers at full opacity, one to the entire image, the other applied only to the statue
• Nik Color Efex -- Darken/Lighten Center to entire image, Sunlight only to statue
• Nik Viveza -- two layers at different blend modes to adjust the blue of the water
• Redfield Fractalius -- three different b&w presets at Multiply blend mode, each masked differently
• dodge & burn statue
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- a single b&w Stylize Line Art preset applied in two layers, Divide for the sky and Multiply everywhere else
• Topaz Lens Effects -- a copy of the Snap Art layer (Divide blend mode) with the white lines was panned horizontally, blurred, and the layer was moved vertically to give the impression of a breeze (hopefully)
• uniform gradient vignette masked somewhat from the part of the image below the sky

[Paul Lagasi]

Very nice to hear this story, nice work. Good use of textures and filters....love the story

[Jeannean Ryman]

Very nice image and story. You're use of filters is amazing! If I do too much, it becomes a muddled mess. Nice to see what someone who knows what they're doing can accomplish. :)

[Christopher Miller]

A most interesting story, Dennis, and a beautiful image. I love the muted colors and the kind of old, painted look you achieved with all those filters/plugins. Well done!

[Anita Bower]

Beautiful work, Dennis. (I'm back after a few weeks break.) I appreciate your description of what you did. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one to do a lot of editing.
I like how you softened everything, statue and background. The sky is marvelous. The sweep of land and water work well and add a dynamic element. The muted colors work just right with the softness of the image. The only thing that bothers me, and this is minor, are the vertical lines along the horizon line going up into the sky. Excellent work. I'd be interested in seeing the original image.

[Dennis Bishop]

. . . The only thing that bothers me, and this is minor, are the vertical lines along the horizon line going up into the sky. . . . I'd be interested in seeing the original image.

Thanks for your comments, Anita. The Fractalius layers I used vary primarily in the amount and intensity of the black lines. The verticals are from the most extreme of the three presets. It's the first one I put together (based on the old Sketch preset) and the one I use the least often, primarily because of the amount of darkening that results even with reduced opacity. Last night, I was working on a Venice rookery image from the same trip, which ended last week. In that one, the same type of line showed up along the top and one edge of the frame. In that case, I masked them out. For the image in this post, however, I was glad to see them because the horizon line was so stark and -- except for the little hill on the left -- straight. It was a subjective thing, and I appreciate hearing your point of view.

Here's what the untouched tiff file (from the HDR tone mapping) that served as the starting point for the image shows . . .

[Andrew McLachlan]

Great story to go along with this Dennis...love the filtering you applied for this creation!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Dennis, I love the work you did on this image and the story that goes with it. I honestly like everything about this one.

[Nancy Bell]

It's great to see the before and after. Very interesting to hear your vision and see its creation after viewing the statue with so much modern stuff cluttering the bkgd. Very well done!