All of the images in this post come from the same high-resolution photograph - to be revealed at the end of the post.
It was taken with an Honor 7X cell-phone camera.
I had some success with my previous 10-photos-in-one post, about a Boston construction site - so thanks for the votes and support on that! I also really had a lot of fun looking closely at all the detail captured by a modern camera, and working out how many interesting compositions I could find within a picture.
It really is amazing how much detail can be captured by these tiny, pinhole sized cameras. And chilling, when you consider the surveillance state applications of the same.
But this is a sunny, optimistic post. Today we're putting this technology to artistic, expressive use. Even if it looks like that lion statue is about to chomp down on a lady's head.
Fortunately for me (and you, if you enjoy this), Boston is full of exquisite detail - and Chinatown is probably one of the most visually rich urban environments I've ever seen in. Every street and store-front is full of color and texture.
I love this ornamental Asian tower in front of the brick and glass skyscrapers that rise behind it. I'll have to do some research. I'm curious if, when it was built, this was one of the high points of the city skyline. Boston is full of ancient (by American standards) churches and mansions, former masters of the air, which now seem puny among their newer, larger (and some would argue, duller) companions.
With the trees and the Christmas lights in the foreground, the detail starts to hover around that perceptual level between "feature" and "background texture." Again, I wasn't really aware of them when I took the picture. Our consciousness can only process so much sensory data, and it's amazing how much we miss.
Mary Soo Hoo park sits right under the Chinatown gate. It's not much of a "green space" - really just a rectangle of concrete brick with a bunch of tables for people to gather and play games.
It's always packed with locals talking, laughing, and arguing in several languages - and playing cards and gambling. (I'm doing some assuming, here. It sounds as though some of them are arguing, albeit in a friendly way. And with an audience like this, there has to be some money at stake, doesn't there?)
There's poverty too, of course. I've started to recognize a coupe of the park's "regulars" sitting or lying around, day after day, wrapped in blankets in the colder weather, or soaking up the sun when the sky is generous. So it's hard to tell if this cardboard box is full of the day's garbage, or the worldly posessions of some unfortunate soul.
It's an uncomfortable place to sleep, to be sure. But the brick-work isn't without charm, especially with the toothy shadows of the gate above are cast across it.
And then there's motion! A shadow running into the shadow.
Remember the excitement you'd feel when you mother handed you a few dollars and sent you off to the corner sweet-shop or candy store? Oh! the sudden empowerment of purchasing power for the very young.
Of course, these days, it's a bank card that conveys this sense of freedom.
In other times, one might imagine this girl was a pick-pocket. Maybe one of Fagin's vagrants, sent to pilfer coin or credit-card data and then vanish into the crowds. But these are sunnier and more prosperious times, and her haste is bourne of joy rather than fear.
This part of the shot was a lucky accident. I just wanted to take a picture of the park, and didn't know I'd captured this errand until I went back through the photos.
Ready for the final reveal?
Remember that you can view most of theese images in even more detail by right-clicking and opening them in a new tab.
All right, here is the complete photograph, taken on a whim among dozens of others in one moment of a gloriously sunny Saturday afternoon.
Here's a challenge for you:
Notice something new today, and then come back and tell us what it was.
There are stories everywhere.