We’re mighty proud of the Pioneer statue that graces the Ashland Plaza. I have to admit that growing up I was more aware of the fountain than the statue, maybe because he was up there so high…. or maybe because it produced pure clear water you could use to rinse out your mouth after sampling the Lithia water fountain nearby.. or maybe because, as far as I know, he hadn’t been named yet. In any case, I took his picture with a background of autumn leaves a couple of weeks ago using the Sweet50. It lacked a certain something so I cropped it quite a bit as I had to stand back away to get the right perspective with that 50 mm lens. I added a high pass filter to give Mike a little more definition and I bumped up the exposure and vibrance and saturation. But it wasn’t until I put the texture on that I decided it would pass as a work of art. Even though the color is a bit off from reality I like the blur in the bottom of the image which is transformed into a grungy look by the texture.