One of the most difficult things to do as a photographer is recreate an image exactly how you did it before. While you may get close to recreating the scene, there will usually be something off making it once again different than the original image. This is what happened today on Day 8 of Thirty Days 2008 as I headed to Washington Park here in Denver. You may recall on May 1st I took an image at the location of a tree and the steam coming off the northern lake in the park. After talking to some people last evening at the gallery opening about the Snowy May Day image, I decided to go back today to try to recapture the image and compare the look a little over six months later. The one thing I did not have with me was the original image, but I knew it well in my head after looking at it during the opening last night as well on other promotional pieces around my office. I recalled the location I was in when taking the image and the key fact that the lightpost was suppose to be between the tree branches. What I needed though was a second reference point and without having that known reference point I was taking a guess. Looking at the image I took below, I see that I needed to be about two steps to the left to match the original and maybe some more of the tree branches above but it is close.
Overall I think the original image is much stronger mostly because there is something going on that day, with fresh snow. Today it was a little blah in the skies and I took advantage of that to underexpose the foreground a bit to get a darker look on the tree as well as getting a feeling in the sky.
Be sure to stop by tomorrow for Day 9 of Thirty Days 2008.