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Mmm that is a difficult question.. I'm not sure that I can answer, but may be some contextual information may help you understand what I'm after.May I ask what inspired / attracted you to take this shot and its composition the way it is? TIA.
Mmm that is a difficult question.. I'm not sure that I can answer, but may be some contextual information may help you understand what I'm after.
1) I'm selftaught in matters of photography. I have no special visual education apart of the fact that I shared the life of an architect for a few years. I have a scientific background having studied history/geography and specialized in urban studies and quantitative methods.
2) So I can tell you why the subject interest me : while I'm now retired, I have kept a strong interest in everything concerning urbanism, planning and architecture. I want to show the urban landscape and everyday's environment. I'm interested I space in general and how the human occupy and mark the territory. Those spaces are interesting to my eyes because this the frame where people live. That is I want to show unremarkable places because ordinary people live there. Well once you begin to ram a neighborhood, it is no more true that the buildings are unremarkable. You can see traces of different periods of the history.
3) I know that I get more likes when I show the pictures of the two castles.. But they are a little too "postcardish". Even if I do still appreciate that view and catch a picture each time the light or weather is a little special.
4) Getting a good and successful picture of those everyday environments which a priori are unremarkable is much more compelling and probably a little too much for my skills. But I'm trying hard..
5) that building with its flat facade and the serial repetition and variation of the position of the windows has something fascinating for me. I liked the red toboggan and the dwarfed playground. That said : may be I shouldn't have shown that picture : in fact I would have liked a slightly larger view (but I only had a the 24mm and 90mm, while the 45mm would have been better.
6) I want to show the soul of these places. I have strange tastes when it comes to buildings .. I like everything modern and contemporary which many people think are ugly. But well, I'm probably not really up to the task. I examine carefully every picture of Michiel Shierbeek because his subjects of interest are near of mines and I study how he solved problems I also have (how he is dividing space, where he cut the frame, how he balance things, etc..
7) to sum up : I should leave my window and practice more in order to get better at what I want to achieve.
Thanks for looking.
Thank you for your explanation and words of encouragement. seems that I really need to add the 45mm TSE to my lens collectionThank you so much Anna for your candid answer. Much appreciated.
Several of your recent urban images, I think, already gave a clue about your interests and motivations.
I certainly would encourage you to pursue your intent as outlined in point 6) above.
If you do, these kind of images could become your personal signature, easily recognizable as such. All good!
As I have mentioned before I typically recognize Michiel Shierbeek's images by their style before looking who posted the image.
Now to your specific image and why I asked my question.
I also picked up on the red and the small play ground for children, as well as on the uniformity of window layout and their shades, or whatever the horizontal and vertical strips are.
However, I felt the image was unfortunately cut off at the top, may be even a bit to the right.
Your point 5) gives an explanation for that. Many thanks.
Again, thanks for posting the image and your candid explanations.
Many thanks Anna. This is a great composition! Clear lines, no distractions. I like the image a lot. Thanks again!Thank you for your explanation and words of encouragement. seems that I really need to add the 45mm TSE to my lens collection
In fact, I had shot there about three years ago with the Canon 6d and wanted to revisit the place with the A7r. But it was very cold and may be that influenced the results, because I prefer what I got in 2013 than what I've got last week. Here is the shot of that building (sometimes I like to have people in them, but very small and from far away) :
Vissigen, Sion - 20130505_178_6di
by hhh rrr, sur Flickr
Thank you Karl you are very kindA stunning image Barry! Terrific post-processing! Thanks.