Documentary Journal

avannah, GA is one of the most scenic and well known landmarks in the south. It is a wonderland of beautiful spanish-moss-laden oak trees and a treasure trove of historical architecture. As such, it is heavily photographed, and it doesn't help that in the last half a decade SCAD's fine art program has fostered thousands of photography students through their discovery of the field right here in the already-too-photographed historic district. Such a diverse group of photographers has ensured that almost everything in Savannah has been photographed from every angle, in every sort of light, with every possible artistic intent. To this problem I propose that perhaps these scenes have not been photographed in every way possible.

In the last three years a previously clumsy and difficult-to-master method called High Dynamic Range imaging through bracketing exposures has become easily accessible to the general population, thanks to enhanced processing power and incredible new user-adjustable tone-mapping algorithms. Along with this processing horsepower also comes the ability to seamlessly stitch multiple exposures together like a panorama and to eliminate depth of field limitations with focus stacking. Together these technologies are allowing photography to escape bonds that have held it for so long

- namely dynamic range, resolution, and depth of field.

I propose that for my documentary project I use what working knowledge I have to further document Savannah's varied and historic landscape in a way no one has yet, through HDR, Panorama, and perhaps Stacked Focus to create a clearer, more colorful, and - most importantly - more accurate document of what the City Of Savannah is.

Steve Moraco - Prof. Fischer - Documentary Photography - Journal

SDusk from inside Drayton Tower, 10th Floor

First Presbyterian Church - Context

For my first images, I walked around Savannah in search of architecture that fascinated me so as to capture something interesting for the first critique. I ended up really challenging myself with two subjects in particular: The house on Orleans Square and the First Presbyterian Church. The old historic house proved terribly lit and difficult to photograph, but I remedied this with carefully edited HDRs that bring out shadow and highlight detail while maintaining most of the scene’s original tonality.

The church didn’t require any HDR treatment, but it’s in a difficult location. It is surrounded by countless big oak trees on one side, a tall building on the other, and towards the street there are smaller trees that prevent a clear view of the facade. I was forced to shoot from the sidewalk right in front of the building, and ended up

making a panorama of 4 images straight up and then stitching them in Photoshop and applying heavy perspective correction before exporting the final edit from Lightroom.


Orleans Square


First Presbyterian Chapel - DetailHouse on Orleans Square - Detail

House on Orleans Square - Oblique

House on Orleans Square - Context

Next stop was the Chancery Building, which I had photographed for Large Format class, and was curious to see what I could do with digital. These turned out, but were not particularly interesting compared to some others I’d made.


Chancery Building, Abercorn St. - Detail

Chancery Building, Abercorn St.

A week or two later a graduate student friend of mine who is documenting the architecture and history of Drayton Tower for her master’s thesis came to me with a request to help her carry some equipment around the tower while she photographed the evening light on the top floors. I brought my camera too and found my way to the roof of the building just after sunset and had the unique opportunity to capture savannah in a wonderful dusk light. HDR made photographing brightly lit churches against a very dim night sky and coming out of a very contrasty situation with a few images that retain great tonal honesty and detail in the shadows while still looking appealing and colorful!


Savannah Skyline from Drayton Tower

St. John’s Cathedral

Savannah Theater


Talmadge Bridge from Drayton Tower

Historic Savannah Home

Industrial District from DraytonDowntown Savannah

Just before midterms I decided that the area around the Tybee Expressway had some interesting views, and I wanted to go exploring and see what I could find! I ended up driving through various back-marsh neighborhoods and finding all sorts of hidden gems between Savannah and Tybee. The view that captured my attention most was that of the

gigantic tanks in the distance. I photographed them in various contexts and I’m quite happy with the variety of compositions that sprung from exploring that.


Waterfront Savannah Home

Frozen Nitrogen Tanks from the Tybee Expressway

There are a few other views around the tybee expressway / bay / broughton street area that have always caught my attention. I took this opportunity to explore those photographically, resulting in one of my favorite pictures of broughton street ever, and a cool light-trails (always interesting) picture from an interstate overpass.


Exellent Lamp Posts as seen from Tybee Expressway

Broughton During Sunset

Tybee Expressway from Harry S Truman Pkwy overpass

This project is becoming more and more about the various views that have always caught my attention as I’ve attended school in the savannah area. One of those has always been the tantalizing view over savannah that can be seen while crossing the Talmadge Bridge in a car. I had biked over the bridge a few times freshman year, so one morning while still in my PJs, I hopped on my bike with my camera backpack and tripod and hit the road. I found another photographer up there but we didn’t talk much, both taken with the task of capturing pictures in the few minutes of gorgeous morning light we were afforded as the sun moved between two layers of early morning haze & clouds.

The light was magnificent, and the pictures communicate the wonderful flatness of the savannah area as well as clearly demonstrating how human settlement has affected the landscape.


The Savannah River from Talmadge Bridge, 7AM

Atmospheric perspective in a view of Hutchinson Isl.

Panoramic Savannah at Sunrise

One of the final pieces of my illustration of savannah was put in place when I had the opportunity to photograph the view of River Street, one of Savannah’s defining features. A friend drove me over to Hutchinson Island multiple times during one of the last weekends of the quarter, which happened to coincide

with the Savannah Tall Ships event during which River Street was made even more beautiful by so many wonderful sailboats docked along it’s shores. I was fortunate enough to be able to get great day and night time shots, as well as shoot back toward the large Savannah Event Center on Hutchinson.


River Street during the Tall Ships 2012 event, taken from Hutchinson Island

Savannah Event Center

As always with life, there’s more to photograph. I don’t plan on ceasing my pursuit of a true document of Savannah any time soon, and fortunately the project is off to a great start thanks to a magnificent Documentary Photo Class! I’ve already had the opportunity to go out on no less than two more shoots since cutting my final selections for presentation during Finals week. Those shoots that have produced 900 images I’ve yet to edit my way through and won’t get to show in class, but it’s looking promising and I am thrilled to say that I will leave Savannah upon graduating SCAD having captured it just as I had hoped I would get to during my very first visit here before freshman year. It’s a truly beautiful city and I’m looking forward to continuing to find my favorite details through photography.


Forsyth Park, SE Corner

Pulaski Square

Documentary Journal

Documents

orleans square detailhouse

orleans square obliquehouse

documentary project

laden oak trees

church didnt

smaller trees

depth of field limitations

old historic house