Abhinav Agarwal: Main Street, Woburn

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Main Street, Woburn

Now this above is a very ordinary looking photograph that I don't consider special in any way whatsoever. But I have still chosen to stick it in this post. Don't ask me why. I felt like doing so. And so I did.

This very nice looking building above is actually a funeral home. In some way you can look at a funeral home as a home, can't you? Albeit a home in a very Ramsay sort of way. Is it deliberate that this funeral home, like so many others, looks very unlike what you would expect a funeral home to look like? Is it to give some sort of comfort to visitors? If are the final client, then it is not really going to make a difference whether it looks like a home or some macabre scene out of a Stephen King novel or a Wes Craven movie. And if you are not the client, but a relative who has dropped in to inquire about the rates and all, then either you don't care, do you? I mean, if you are the one who is going to be opening up the wallet for your near one's final journey, you are probably more interested in the quality of the casket, and whether they 'reuse' caskets, if you know what I mean.

One of the disadvantages of what I call 'drive-by shooting' (and I mean photography and not the random spraying of bullets by half crazed drug addicts) is that you cannot stop or slow to smell the roses. Or even get the name of the nice looking building you photograph. Judging by the spire and look I would hazard a guess that this photo above is of a church. But I can't be sure.

Now this is a fine example of a nice house. And a large house at that. Normally I don't like to get too much of sky in a photograph, unless and until the sky is a dark and very saturated blue that serves as a contrast (photographs of Oracle office in Redwood Shores are a fine example). Or if the sky is overcast and not plain white or dull. In the above example the sky is overcast and an interesting mix of white and dark clouds with a hint of the blue sky made it worthwhile to get the sky in. Also, I think I exposed for the white portion of the clouds so that the photo would not look too washed out.