This week’s photo challenge is the word “big” – as in larger than life or unexpected large.

Big is exactly how I would describe the main room of Union Station in Washington D.C..  See how little the people look by comparison?  This is straight out of the camera, taken in 2011 using my old point and shoot, a Canon Pro 1, purchased about 2003.  For an old camera, it still did a nice job and was smaller to carry than my Canon Rebel.

I was in D.C. that day for a business conference, but of course being me, I brought my camera with.  I took pictures from the train windows and everywhere that I stopped.  Here are some pictures of a red house that I posted using some Photoshop techniques.  Those were taken while the train was stopped at a station that day (Fredericksburg, I think).

The trip was interesting – I’d only been to D.C. once as an adult and had never taken Amtrak before that day.  The VP of my department was patient explaining what I needed to do and how I needed to do it (ensuring of course that I’d be at the meeting on time!).  I am responsible for the state income tax returns for a Fortune 500 company; my counterparts do federal and international taxation.  That day had presentations for all three of our groups and I had the opportunity to meet and network with consultants from the other groups.

Here’s the same photo after I straightened it out a bit and played with it in Photoshop and some Topaz Labs filters.  I liked the punched up colors and detail on it, but probably won’t spend much more time correcting some of the color cast in it:

While I’d not taken the Amtrak before, I’m certainly no stranger to trains or train stations, having traveled in and out of Chicago’s Union Station numerous times.  At one time the large ceiling there was dropped down to conserve energy.  I believe that has been reversed and the glamour of that room was restored.  Still, the D.C. station was awesome.

Of course, big can also be used for a larger than life personality.  Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865.  He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia and has a life size statue as a marker.  I found it during one of my explorations of the cemetery.

There are many big personalities and he is probably not one of the biggest.  Still, looking at his grave and thinking over the Civil War Museums that I’ve visited with my favorite boy toy, I suspect the era was full of big personalities.  The war would not have been fought so vigorously by anyone who could not or did not think big.

Of course, we have our big personalities in this day and age.  For each of us, it will be someone different.  The most fun though is when we ourselves are a big personality or we have someone in the family who is.  It’s so much more fun when it’s personal, from the husband shooting rubberbands on Christmas Day to explaining to my family doctor that I was trying to swing with my daughter when I found out my knee was not working right. . . my adult daughter that is.

Can you tell the dog was used to this?

So big is something that can make us feel small, remind us of how vast the universe is, or be a way of living our life.

For me, I’d rather be remembered as a big personality than to not be remembered.

Photoshop & Lightroom Topaz Labs Washington D.C. Weekly Photo Challenge Civil War Hollywood Cemetery Jefferson Davis postaday Union Station Chicago Union Station Washington DC