This is another image from Farlington Lake/Crawford State Park. This is a statue that was dedicated, as I understand it, a couple of years ago to honor members of the Civilian Conservation Corps who worked at and around the park and across southeast Kansas. The CCC was the New Deal brainchild of Pres. Franklin Roosevelt as a way put people to work during the Great Depression at the beginning of the last century.
OK. Now I feel old, talking about "the last century." I'm just sayin'.
Again, this image was made using a couple of supplemental strobes to add light around the face/head of the statue and help pick up detail that would have otherwise been lost in the shadows. It was shot with the Canon G9 that I've been learning to use recently.
Sorry Jeff.
I've been interested in the CCC for several years, ever since I did a story on the organization about 10 years ago while I was working in western Nebraska. I found a couple of men who still lived in the area who'd been members of the CCC. They'd worked on some of the projects in the west Nebraska/east Wyoming area we covered.
The CCC and it's sister program, the Works Project Administration, employed millions at a time when jobs were at a premium. I was surprised to find out how many stadiums, park buildings, roads, bridges and other facilities were built by CCC and WPA workers and are still standing and in use today.
My initial plan when I started setting up to make this image was to photograph the statue against the clouds and blue sky and suppliment the late afternoon light. I took a few images, focused on just the face/head of the statue.
I took a little break from shooting and walked around the statue, looking at different angles. That's when I noticed the flag was blowing in the wind and, from the right angle, could be included in the image. Of course, the wind decided at that moment to go away, so I never got an an image of the flag completely blowing out, which is what had caught my attention in the first place!
But it does serve to remind me to keep my eyes open when I'm out shooting. I don't know how many times I've been out making images and something else has jumped out at me, seen first out of the corner of my eye or when I take the camera down from my eye for a minute.
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