These "favorite children" are actually twins! They illustrate what I love about hand coloring photographs. You can create your own mood, or even a different season. The first photo (Golden Triangle Spring) was taken on the same morning as the second one (Golden Triangle Fall). Here we see Pittsburgh's Gateway Center building complex (part of the downtown area known as the "Golden Triangle" — where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers meet to form the Ohio) on a June morning of lush trees and beautiful blooming bushes, just before a drenching downpour. The other photo was taken from a parking garage, looking down on the same trees, after the rain abated. This time, the feeling is autumnal, with a shaft of afternoon sunlight reflected on the aluminum "skin" of one building. Some hand colorists like to take Polaroid photos in addition to shooting their black and white film. By doing this, they can check the actual colors in a composition and then recreate them when painting their prints. I prefer to utilize the tones — from black to all the various grays to white — but change the colors as needed to communicate a particular emotion in the finished piece. I can even turn a rainy day into a sunny one as the second photo shows! I dub these fraternal twin prints "Golden Triangle Spring" and "Golden Triangle Fall." And who's to tell me otherwise?

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