Your Fortune Awaits

Photographer and Iowa-based Shirk Photography studio owner Ben Shirk says he wasn’t quite sure where to start when he created the image titled “Your Fortune Awaits,” seen here. “I knew I wanted to create a night scene at a carnival,” says the WPPI speaker, “but I had no idea what I wanted it to look like or even who my subject would be.”

Shirk began playing with the scene first by combining different parts of a circus that he had photographed separately—rides, buildings, tents, flags, gates and signs. “I extracted, layered, colored, morphed and blended each element until the scene slowly evolved,” he says.

All in all, it’s the color tones, leading lines and layers of interest that Shirk says draws viewers into the scene and, he notes, “leaves you wondering what will happen next.”

Photo © Ben Shirk

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