I took this photo because it reminded me of photos taken in the NY subway in the 70s.
Paris in the 2020s is obviously way less edgy.
NY 70s vs Paris 2020s
Watching the sunset
I think I will make this newsletter a Monday one. With I May Be Wrong on Friday.
Most of the time, I take my landscape photos in portrait orientation. That’s just the way I read photos. And I rarely crop because I learned to get what I want in camera.
But sometimes, you see a scene where you want to emphasise the quietness. You’re looking at something that just relaxes you, where everything is still, silent, a breath of fresh air. For those occasions, there isn’t much that is more effective than a square composition.
The photo was taken on the 15th October 2006 in Findhorn, Northern Scotland, with a Canon 350D + Canon 17-55IS lens. At that time of the year, the days are getting a lot shorter, the air becomes a bit fresh in the evening, but on the rare sunny days the temperature is still comfortable and the light is amazing when the sun sets.
My subject was the group of people chatting and watching the sea at sunset. They were relaxing and clearly enjoying their time. I wanted to capture that.
So my first decision was to go square. I knew from experience that if a shot has a strong symmetry, the square format accentuates it and makes the shot very static, very calm. It doesn’t work for every kind of scene and can feel boring, but that was exactly what I was after.
Then I decided to I make sure that the pier was centered. That would be the symmetry enforcer in the photo. Because it’s in the middle, so massive compared to everything else, and the only thing that really has colour, it forces the brain to consider it the anchor of the scene. And as it is connected to the left side of the frame, the photo is read from left to right in the centre: you start on the left edge, follow the pier, and end up on the subjects.
The negative space, right of the pier, has two functions: it stops the eye on the subjects once you went down the pier, and it gives the subjects space to breathe. There isn’t much I dislike more than people too close to the edge of the photo toward which they look. People should have space to look or move to. And in this case, it shows the viewer what they were watching.
The fact that the sky and the sea were nearly the same colour (I had a 2 stop ND grad on the sky because it was still quite bright) unifies both and extends the negative space around the subjects.
There was a boat in the sea that I could have removed in post. But I decided to put it on the crossing of the thirds as a point of interest in the empty space instead. It might or might not work for the viewer. For me it works. It embodies what the subjects were looking at in the distance.
The algae at the bottom isn’t ideal, but I couldn’t avoid it, unless I cropped more but then the subjects would be trapped. It kind of balances the shoreline in the background, anyway.
I only had time to take one shot, after that the people got up and walked away.
#Photography #PhotosExplained #Analysis
The Bestest Travel Setup in the History of the Universe
Did you like my attempt at YT-style clickbait? Seriously, there is no such thing. There is no perfect setup; there is no one way to do things; there is no best lens/camera/film. Only you can know what gear works for you given a set of circumstances. Let’s move on from that.
As I’m going to travel to Oslo, as I do a couple of times a year for work (I work for vikings), I thought I’d show my camera travel setup and explain my choices. Not because I do it better than anyone else and I have some magical knowledge of what is best, but just out of interest, because I like to know what people use for their own photography. Feel free to show me yours.
What will happen to your photos once you’re gone?
One of the things that I’ve been thinking about for a long time is: what will happen to my photos once I’m gone? I’m not talking about whether the actual images will still exist (hint: print). I’m talking about what will people do with them.
Islay Lighthouse
To start the series, I’ve taken a random photo from many years ago. In May 2009, I visited the isle of Islay, on the West coast of Scotland, with my wife and my parents. Islay is a pilgrimage place for people interested in peaty whisky and both my wife and my father are into it. So it made sense to have a visit.
The PC
Paris used to have a train line going around it. It was called the PC: Petite Ceinture. It was closed a long time ago (before I was born I think).
Most of it has disappeared: covered, built upon, or recycled. It was even converted into private gardens in places. There are few sections that have been converted to walking tracks.
Blue
I don’t often take colour photos, but this time I made the conscious effort to do so.
I liked all the blue things. That’s taken at the back of Beaubourg. The less touristy side.
Walking under the arches
I was in Paris a few weekends ago to visit my parents. I took the opportunity to walk around Paris for a few days.
I had to wait a while to get people and the pigeon in the right place.
On Library Lending Cards
Warning: this is photography-adjacent only.
Sometimes I buy second hand books. Either on Amazon or on local markets. Mostly because when you buy a lot of books it becomes expensive. Especially photography books. And I need the money for photography and astronomy. On occasion, these books come from libraries that have closed or that have sold some of their stock of rarely borrowed books to replace them with books people prefer.
I love when these books still contain their date stamped lending cards.
Is Substack Just a Bunch of Echo Chambers?
I’m still trying to identify why I like Substack so much more than other social platforms. So navel gazing warning is in place.
One of the things that annoyed me with Substack is the fact that the various people writing on it do so for duplicates of themselves.
