Friends of Mary's from Missouri have a summer cabin on Borden Lake in northern Minnesota. While visiting them, we took a day trip to Duluth and over to Hibbing to the Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine. It was an interesting place with a viewing area of the mine and this area where relics from the mining operation were on display. I framed this photograph to capture the size of the large shovel bucket, composing it so that it was in balance with the concrete structure in the upper right. That is all I intended - just a quick shot of an interesting scene. A typical tourist shot.
When I returned home and was working on the image in Lightroom, I decided that color wasn't needed. I made some tonal adjustments to bring back the detail in the sky and add a little contrast. I removed the little display stand toward the lower right. After removing the display stand, I removed a few other items that I felt were unnecessary. I began to like the almost surreal feel of the image. This guided the rest of my post processing. I am satisfied with the result.
As captured by the camera
