Confinement

St. Petersburg, Russia 2009…shot from the bus window on a bridge over the Neva River

I try to think of a catchy title for my photos…maybe someone googling a word will hit on my site. Who knows? With the thousands of photographers showing their work on the net, we do what we can to attract you, dear viewer. And choosing the word, “confinement”, turned out to be rather Freudian: the spire of the building in the center of this landscape belongs to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Inside the fortress was an infamous prison.  Two well-known prisoners confined here were the writer Dostoevsky and Lenin’s henchman, Leon Trotsky.

But back to “confinement”, what I was thinking was that being on a cruise is like being in confinement. We were on board and confined, in a bus and confined and always and ever confined to a group. Most of my photos were shot from the deck of our ship. Such as this lovely church on the Volga.

I shot many of these churches. Most were surrounded by large trees and only the onion domes were visible. This one was practically on the river bank. I used a photo of wood as a layer then used blend mode “overlay” to add texture. Just for variety and added interest.

Her dark hair made her stand out among all the blue-eyed blonds. She was energetic and intelligent and was embarrassed when I wanted to take her photo as she worked. But she was the only subject I had at the time. And I liked her manner. She was the kind of girl you would want your son to bring home to meet you.  I gave this a painterly look in remembrance of Edward Hopper, my favorite.