When you enter the narrow Falmouth alley known as Upton Slip, you will encounter an enormous figurehead moored outside of a sail-maker’s shop. My goal is to confront you with this strange piece of nautical history, and do so with impact and power. I take an intimate, in-your-face vantage point, making the head of the figurehead very large and powerful. The sun was very high in the sky, throwing harsh shadows on the face, particularly around the eyes. It was not good lighting at all. I solved the light problem by making it the solution. I made the mysterious, high key light work for me instead of against me. I let this confrontation become an eerie one, full of mystery and veiled menace. I tilted my camera so that the figurehead dominates the picture as a forceful diagonal instead of in a passive, vertical orientation. I leave half the face light and the other half dark, by metering on the bright side of the face with my spot meter. (Normal “evaluative” metering would tend to lighten the shadows and wash out the highlights in a situation such as this.) The result is a surreal encounter with a mysterious lady of the sea.