Contrasts - part 9 of 9

An oil platform passed through the sea channel that our friends garden overlooked. I took a sequence of photographs looking to include something in the frame that gave an indication of its size. This was the most successful picture:-

The passing speed boat gives some point of reference in the picture.

Later in the morning, we passed a construction yard where some engineers were examining a crane from a high platform.

Whilst I wanted to convey the height at which they were working, I chose the photograph taken horizontally as I wanted to include the sloping crane jib on the left hand side. This symmetrical triangular pattern seemed more balanced.

Our friends took us to see a collection of vintage and bizarre vehicles collected by one of the Abu Dhabi Sheiks. The interior of the museum was closing, so these pictures are some of the vehicles kept in the open air. We were there at about midday and the sunlight was therefore very harsh.

I thought that this trailer in the form of the earth might be a suitable subject to portray "heavy" as a characteristic.

It was the huge tires that caught my eye as a potential "thick", "broad" or "strong" subject. I stood close with the widest angle lens I have so that the front tire stands out. I chose a viewpoint at eye level as with lower viewpoints, the body of the car was not recognizable.

This gigantic jeep was an obvious subject to portray "large". I used a wide angle lens setting and chose this viewpoint as I wanted to show the front of the jeep, even though this was in the shade. My friend acted as the model to provide an indication of scale.

I had been told that the newly built Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque was open for suitably dressed tourists and photographers. I was particularly interested as a friend mentioned that they had seen some interesting photographs of the glass in some of the rooms. I went hoping to find some "transparent" or "opaque" contrasts. This was a good location as the glass windows and doors were at eye level so that it was possible to get close up. The doors and windows were engraved with simplified leaf and petal shapes. The bevelled edges sometimes caught the light. There were also patterns filled with colored glass mosaic.

The three images I selected were as follows;

In this image I focussed on the colored petal shapes in the window, in the centre of which can be seen a blurred figure silhouetted against the external daylight at the end of the colonnade. I considered that in order to convey transparency of the glass, I needed some reference in the picture that was opaque or translucent to give the contrast. The mosaic glass shapes are translucent/opaque. Even though the figure is blurred and only relatively small, it attracts the eye through the space between the petals into the space beyond. The framing in the gap between the petals and the light behind combine to enhance the visibility of the figure.

In this photograph, I chose an area of frosted glass that was relatively bright. Some of the engraved areas provided a dark contrasting bands as they were reflecting shadow areas. The lens was close to a standard focal length using ISO 100 f/7.1 at 1/320th. I paid particular attention to corners of the frame and the position of the dark lines to produce an abstract design in the frame.

I was similarly looking for an abstract pattern in this image. This time, I chose a place where the frosted glass was darker, but some of the bevelled edges were bright with some fringe patterns. In contrast to the two other glass photographs, the glass in this case appears "opaque" and it is the bright edges which make the contrast.

The mosque buildings are totally white, decorated with flower motifs in colored stone, reminiscent of the Taj Mahal. I have included a couple of the pictures as potential candidates for this assignment.

My purpose in this photograph was to take tightly framed compressed perspective picture of the minarets and domes. It was late morning (this is the time that the mosque is open for tourists) and hence the shadows were reasonably harsh even on a hazy day in February. It was the effect of the shadows that I wanted to bring out the rounded geometrical shapes of the minarets and domes. The use of light and shadow should be one way to convey the "solid" nature of a subject.

In the second picture, it was the figure of a cleaner that caught my attention, and the glossy surface of the smooth marble floors. I framed a couple of photographs of him in the foreground before he moved away using a wide angle setting to include a large wedge of the shiny marble. He stands in silhouette against the white quadrangle behind. There is another photographer mostly hidden by a pillar that I decided to leave in the picture. I felt that he was not a significant distraction.