“Cotton Night”

East Walworth Avenue in downtown Delavan, Wisconsin

March 23, 2024

With Americans being bombarded with torrents of words, pictures, and other data, many people are suffering from brain fog. Me included, but this week my brain is occupied with the actual fog as I present this photo of downtown Delavan, Wisconsin.

I did this shot late one evening on March 20, 2000, of the main drag, East Walworth Avenue. Three of the blocks of the street are paved with bricks, adding to the uniqueness of the downtown.

Last week I wrote about my photo “Soon to Change” of the beach house in Williams Bay that also featured fog as a predominant element. Whereas that fog obscured details of the landscape (or lakescape, if you please), in some parts of the photo the Delavan fog does the opposite and accentuates the cityscape.

The fog certainly magnifies the amount of light emanating from the many street lights and reflecting off the moisture accumulated on the bricks. The light makes the tree into a handsome silhouette, just big enough to be a nice element of the photograph without dominating it.

One of the biggest bonuses for me that night was the appearance of the two men walking on the sidewalk. Yes, two men. One is hard to detect because he blends into the front of the buildings. Also, I did an exposure of 5-10 seconds, so the movement of both men rendered them blurry.

Even though I consider myself primarily a landscape photographer, I always relish the opportunity to include people in my photos. Depending on how I compose such photos, people can add interest and depth and aid in conveying extra meaning – or a different one than if they were missing.

Speaking of meaning, this photo reminds me of 11 years of residing in a bare-bones apartment whose entry was off the right side of the photo. I lived on the second floor in the back of an old building probably constructed when the street was dirt.

Oh, the stories I have about living in the so-called heart of the action. Everyone should have such an experience.

I moved in 2002 to a less-than-deluxe large apartment complex on the southwest edge of Delavan. My 12 years in that different culture produced even more stories and, fortunately, gave me opportunities to do more interesting photography. I am grateful for it being a constant in my life.

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