a photo impressionistic image of apple trees in fall colours photographed in the round.

University Avenue on Fire: a photograph using the photo impressionistic technique “in the round.”

University Avenue, with it’s boulevard of apple trees slices through Toronto’s Hospital District. It is a ribbon of colour bound by bleak institutional architecture. But miracles happen here every day. That’s what I love about this picture. The way the colour explodes out of the darkness like hope rising from despair.

My obligations as a lawyer have kept my camera in its bag for far too long. But an adjournment allowed an unexpected shooting opportunity.  Walking up University Avenue between Sick Children’s and Toronto General Hospitals I found these trees breaking out of the shadows.

It was unclear to me how I should capture the scene. Traffic was busy and the sidewalk was a stream of scrubs, suits and patients. After a couple of tests I decided to use a photo impressionistic approach by photographing the trees “in the round.”

a photo impressionistic image of apple trees in fall colours photographed in the round.
Apple trees on University Avenue’s boulevard photographed in the round © stephen d’agostino -all rights reserved

I love the way in the round technique deconstructs a complex scene into its essential elements in an impressionistic way.

This picture is composed of about 20 images photographed “in the round” technique; meaning I walked around the tree to the extent possible taking pictures from different positions. The images were merged using an opacity blend which deconstructs the scene reducing it to its essential elements.

This picture was well recieved on Flickr where it received over 40,000 views on the first day thanks to its selection for Explore. That makes 21 Explore images for me in the past 2 years.

Prints can be purchased from Daylighted at https://www.daylighted.com/picture/7586/university-avenue-on-fire-toronto

My 21st image on Flick's Explore
My 21st image on Flick’s Explore

 

6 thoughts on “University Avenue on Fire: a photograph using the photo impressionistic technique “in the round.””

  1. Hi Stephen, I always enjoy looking at your photos so much. Would you have a good read to recommend that would explain the technique you are using to create such masterpiece?
    Thanks,
    Josee

  2. Thanks for that Josee. I am not aware of any books that describe the ‘in the round ” technique I have been using. The opacity blending techniques are mostly from Vincent Versace’s Welcome to Oz books but then adapted to impressionist images. I describe some of the processes here.

  3. A little bit late to the party, but these images have me spellbound! Thank you for the detailed methodology – I’m looking forward to trying it out.

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