[Leica] IMG: my hometown

[nod at bouncing.org (Philip Clarke)]

I'd like to pick one image, which I would call a "fantasy what if ?"
commentary.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/belgiangator/aarhus/_B035051.jpg.html

that you have captioned to include the sentence "This is not a
particularly good photograph". This picture has elements that could make
 it a great photo with the addition of one element, a Ladder. Phillippe
has a ladder (and uses it widely), so did I when I was active, and I
think it is one of the most underated accessories.

What I would suggest is getting in close to the "statue" on the wall and
keeping the building in the rear to give it depth, but the picture
clearly illustrates converging verticals so the camera can't be tilted
backwards, but if the image is taken by the statue and the camera is
levelled, one ends up with a bin in the picture and probably cutting the
top of the building off. So one needs height and a ladder to get to an
angle where when held level the statue is on the right of the frame and
blocking the smaller building so one has a cleaner more interesting
image to start with. The image would be left with very clean verticals
from the windows (although in a true fantasy all the blinds would be
open or shut. There's flower mural that would disrupt the eye at the
bottom of the building, from the angle I've chosen (a few feet closer to
the mural and 4 feet up), there's a sweeping curve that connects the
wall of the mural to the tree and more depth caused by the reflection of
the building in the pool. I'd have to be very careful not to include the
older building above the statue so I may even have to move a few feet
closer to the statue and choose to fill the entire right hand side of
the picture with the wall.

Now I realise that this is fiction and that a ladder may not have been
available and a whole host of other things may not be possible, the top
of the building has a grey metal framework and it'd be very tricky to
find the exact angle that hides it, or the building may need to be
cropped. There's a not very attractive drain pipe on the side so the
other option is to loose the tree by swinging the camera over more to
the right (from my fantasy position) and another option is ignoring the
building entirely, getting up even higher, photographing the statue on
the wall filling half the frame entirely and the other half being filled
by the reflection of the building in the pool. If the water is still
then it's a representative image, but throwing a stone into the pool
breaks the image up into contrasting brick lines and wobbly windows.

This is the way my mind works when I see any picture, even if the scene
is lacklustre, I explore any option available including dragging the
table to under my "ladder" position and standing on it.

Philip.


Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>  have lived and travelled in many countries during my adult life. But
> one place will always be the most special place in the world for me, and
> that place is ?rhus, where I grew up and which will always be my
> hometown. Everywhere I go there are memories from my childhood and
> youth, and more importantly, there are good friends to visit:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/belgiangator/aarhus/
> 
> I visit ?rhus twice a year and will be adding to the gallery after every
> trip, next time probably in November.
> 
> Nathan
> 
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
> http://www.frozenlight.eu
> http://www.greatpix.eu
> http://www.nathanfoto.com
> 
> Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0
> PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
> Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog
> 
> 
> 
> 
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