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Tyler Davidson Fountain, Cincinnati's Fountain Square



Took this one last night at Fountain Square, the public plaza in the heart of downtown Cincinnati. As civic squares go, this one is pretty uninspired -- as if a Cincy pol had his/her secretary google "generic things I can do to make it look like I care about our pre-eminent public space." But I've always loved the Tyler Davidson Fountain, which was dedicated in 1871, and that was good enough reason to visit. 




I took some wider shots of the fountain but it's tough going these days. If you want to shoot from the front -- that is, capture the face of the "The Lady" on top -- you're have to deal with a Rock Bottom Brewery in the background, not to mention a building that is bathed in pink light and some other corporate signage. The architects/urban planners who revised the square in recent years clearly aren't photographers. I'm not even sure they're architects or urban planners. 

So I tried some up close shots. I wanted to keep the image in color but parts of the fountain showed pink reflections which seemed out of place without the building also in the photo - actually they would have been out of place even with the strange pink building. I finally ended up converting to black and white and then trying some different looks in Silver Efex Pro, which I use as a Lightroom plug-in. I liked this one the best as it seemed a tad more original than the usual Fountain Square photos that I see.

Here's a horizontal version -- I like the vertical better: 



I'm in the midst of a two-week visit to Cincy. I haven't had much time to shoot unfortunately, but am trying to squeak in a little time -- and have some stuff I like that I'll keep posting.  

More of my work is on my main photo site, where you can buy prints and digital licenses. 

--S.H.

This photo is ©Steve Hymon and may not be used elsewhere without my advanced written permission. All rights reserved.