Cahokia Mounds, ever heard of it? It a UNESCO World Heritage site that is just outside of St. Louis Missouri. Here is Monk’s Mound the largest remaining part of the site:
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Cahokia Mounds are the remains of a society that was living in the area in A.D. 700-1400. At its peak there may have been as many as 20,000 people living in the area. The modern stairs in the photo are on the site of stairs that would have been used when this older culture was flourishing. When you climb to the top, you get a view of modern day St. Louis:
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The metallic glow of St. Louis is quite jarring in comparison. Archeologists have found relatively little metal at the Cohokia site, just a few bits of copper. Tools of bone and stone are much more common. The site has a very nice interpretive center and if you go for a visit, that is where I would recommend you start. It is interesting to look through what is known about the site and then think about all the things that aren’t known.
On the day we visited, I wasn’t really thrilled with the photos I was getting as I was looking on the back of my camera. I decided to shoot bracketed exposures and edit them in Photomatix. Once I was in Photomatix I decided to use a surreal setting for my final photos. I wanted the stairs to pop in the first photo and the metallic glow and odd sky in the second photo. I would say I was looking for a bit of drama to illustrate my story. Below are two of the original photos, both the middle exposure I shot:
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I felt that the HDR and surreal settings help to illustrate between these two cultures. What do you think? Does it make that point? Does it do it well, or is it too overdone for your liking? Your comments are welcome below.
Cheers!
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