Sailing Stalin’s Waterways
North of St. Petersburg 2009
We were on a waterway cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Much of the time we sailed on rivers and lakes so huge that I felt as if we were at sea. The water was calm, though. I’d hate to be on the ocean and have gigantic waves crashing over the bow of the boat. I’d be on my knees praying for a safe harbor. The idea of all that depth and the boiling sea is frightening to me. Once when I was flying over the Atlantic at night, I thought of what was down below us and had to get a grip. As people have told me all my life, “you think too much” and they don’t mean that I am coming up with formulas for physics.
But today’s landscape is nothing if not peaceful with lovely clouds tinted pink by the morning sun. The few Russians I have chatted with have sooner or later revealed a love of the outdoors. And that idea, the Russian love of nature, stayed in my mind as I photographed from the deck of our boat.
This landscape goes along with yesterday’s thoughts on having contrasts of dark/light areas of your photo. Well, you say, how could you avoid having dark/light in this photo? If I’d cut the sky or the water and just zoomed in on two of the elements, would the photo be as interesting? The areas of dark and light are all about equal. What if I’d cut the sky or the water so that the forest (dark area) was dominant? Would that be better? It might. I didn’t try it, but I don’t think so.
I did lighten the water just a bit to make it echo the value of the sky. And I increased the contrast of the water to show the texture. It doesn’t make a dramatic difference, but maybe our subconscious absorbs these nuances and we find ourselves looking just a bit longer because of those adjustments.
Another detail of this photo that is inviting to me is the path between the trees on the right. The grass is lighter there and it brings your eye from the front of the image to te back. I was told by an artist that you need a pathway for the eye to follow through your image. I’m beginning to understand what she meant.
I titled this ‘Sailing Stalin’s Waterways’ because he did build a canal from the Volga River to Moscow. It took 5 years from 1932 to 1937 using prison labor from the Gulag. Stalin didn’t have enough money to pay workers so he imprisoned the populace and Voila!, labor that was very nearly free except for the costs for the guards.