Right For All The Wrong Reasons

Steeple Silhouette, Charleston, SC  -  2012

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

A long time ago I worked as a numerical control programmer at Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans. One of my supervisors sometimes said when reviewing my work, "You are right for all the wrong reasons." In other words, my result was correct, but looking at my process, he couldn't understand how I got there.

I think that accurately describes how this photo came about. It wasn't originally intended to be a silhouette. To be honest, I blew it, I screwed up, I significantly underexposed the shot. The sky was OK, but the church steeple was way too dark. Not dark enough to be a true silhouette, but too dark to see much detail on the steeple. However, being almost a silhouette gave me the idea to make it a true silhouette. So I darkened the building and steeple even more, while retaining enough brightness in the sky to hold detail in the clouds. And I could have kept this all a secret and let you think that I have the silhouette shooting technique nailed down. No, once again I was simply right for all the wrong reasons.