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.

Contrasts - part 8

In the port area and around the marina, we saw many traditional wooden sailing boats being transported and rigged by local teams. The long slim hull shapes indicated that these were for racing rather than work vessels. It seems that a regatta was about to take place. Viewed from different angles, these boats provided potential subjects for "long", "narrow", "heavy", "smooth" and more. I selected the following three pictures from the photographs I took.

This image was taken at wide angle from close to one side of the bow to make the boat look as narrow as possible. Also, the vertical frame works to create a similar perception (slightly cropped to exclude most of a skyscraper in the right background). The smooth glossy hull is also a feature in the bright sunlight.

This photograph was taken in the evening light. In this case, I wanted to emphasize the length of the hull. I again was using a wide angle setting but this time viewed from the side. I considered whether to crop out part of the masts and sky to leave a long letterbox type frame. However, I thought that the proportion of the long hull shape to the relatively short sloping masts was already sufficient to emphasize the length.

I had not formulated a clear idea of what to portray as "heavy" in visual terms. When I walked behind the stern of this boat that had just been pulled out of the water I was thinking that there may be an interesting play of the evening light on the hull. Looking through the viewfinder I saw the downward curve of the trailer and saw my opportunity. I tried various versions using a wide angle lens to vary the extent of the hull included in the frame. I decided to leave the boatman standing at the side to show the large bulk of the boat.

There were a number of traditional style buildings in the compound of the Heritage Club Village. The walls were a muted pink color in the evening light. I hoped that I would find some potential subjects to portray the "solid" or "strong" nature of the buildings.

I was attracted by the moorish colonnade around this building that was illuminated by the low sunlight. Looking through the viewfinder on the widest angle setting the near corner of the building stood out. I chose to place this on the left third of the frame so that the building seems to reach towards the viewer. The "solid" character is emphasized by the buildings angular shape and shadows in this picture.

One of the buildings was a mosque with this interesting roof. The barrel shaped roof was surmounted by rows of vertical projections. The roof was surrounded by horizontal overflow drains. These were standing out in the evening light as the sun was still lighting those projecting on the shaded side of the building, whereas those on the sunlit side were dark silhouettes. I cropped out the lower part of the building to emphasize the pattern of the roof structure. I thought that this picture is a potential candidate for "pointed" characteristic.

This is one of the wind towers, a natural ventilation system on traditional buildings. In order to emphasize the "pointed" character, I used a vertical frame close cropped around the tower.

As the sunset progressed, I took a number of photographs of different subjects in silhouette.

One idea was to think about this as a means of emphasizing the "solid" nature of a building, such as the mosque.

Again I set the lens at wide angle and stood close enough to just fit the building in the horizontal frame. I looked at standing to one side or another to achieve a similar effect to the picture of the colonnade above. However, I chose this central position as this minimized the distracting buildings in the background. Also, the lights in the small windows in the tower were just visible from this position.

There was a small enclosure with three camels in the same compound. I took this photograph from some distance away as I was wary of causing any disturbance and attracting attention to myself. I was told by a local photographer that the club was private land even though visitors were at liberty to go in and look around.

I had been looking out for something transparent or translucent that would form an interesting silhouette and I was pleased to find this gateway and lamp with the setting sun behind it. There was still quite a lot of light so that I could take this with ISO 160 at f/8 and 1/640th.

Contrasts - part 7

The sea channel in front of our friends house was flat calm the next morning, and I took the opportunity to take some photographs of this "smooth" subject. There is a low island on the other side of the channel which give emphasis to the horizon. I waited for some boats to pass by, as I felt that the empty seascape lacked enough visual interest.

We visited the commercial harbor and fish market in the morning. At the commercial harbor there was an area 0f abandoned wooden dhows. I had been looking for groups of boats as a potential picture of their bows for "pointed". These were also weathered and battered and I was looking at potential subjects for "large", "broad", "diagonal", "strong", "weak", "hard" amongst others.

From the photographs I took, the following seemed to be the pictures with potential for this assignment:

I took this photograph standing close to the first boat and a wide angle lens setting. One effect of the short focal length that I liked is that there is a radial arrangement of the boats prows. Before this course, I would have stood further away from the boats with the longer focal length so that the prows would appear to be more parallel.

I was attracted by the square holes in the deck of this dhow. I included more in the original photograph, but reviewing this at home, I chose this composition after sketching out the visual elements in the image as was suggested in the exercise on balance. I felt that corner of the deck housing coincided with the point of origin of several of the dark shadow areas and I placed this point in the position which seemed to balance the visual elements in the frame. I have not identified this image as having any of the characteristics that we are asked to contrast in this assignment, so I may use this at another stage of the course.

The hull on this dhow was badly damaged and I was looking for an picture to convey a feeling of "weakness". The photograph I took included more of the dhow. As in the previous picture, I sketched out the visual elements to select a composition that emphasized the dilapidation of the hulk.

The fish market was a large shed which was busy with fish sellers, customers, fish cleaners, and an area where cooks would cook the fish for customers to take home ready to eat. The number of people and lighting made taking photographs tricky. I was looking for subjects that could illustrate "pointed" or "rounded" or "curved" amongst others. A few of the photographs I took were acceptable, but I will just include one that is a potential image conveying "curved":

In the afternoon, we went to Yas Island to visit a new hotel built beside the Formula 1 racetrack. The hotel building is almost wholly white in color inside and out, and it is covered by a rounded frame.

I had thought that for a "light" contrast with dark, I would need a high key subject photographed in bright light with some dark or shadow area to make it stand out. Just in front of the hotel was a fountain which suited this formula.

I took some photographs of the hotel exterior structure. I liked this picture as the two v-shaped steel struts stand out against the curving shapes of the roof and wall. This conveys the feeling of "straight".

On the way into the hotel, I noticed another photographer taking a picture of the bridge over the racetrack. This prompted me to return to the bridge on foot. I had been looking for a subject to convey the "broad" characteristic and this bridge seemed to be an ideal candidate. For this subject, I had planned to use a wide angle lens to emphasize the wide shape. However, in the event, I used standard focal length as the road in the foreground lacked visual interest.

This was slightly sharper than another photograph of the same subject without the car, so I chose this one.

I took another view of the hotel from this bridge by resting the camera close on the bridge parapet. The curved arch of the bridge formed a frame for the curved shape of the hotel. There is even a slight mirror image of the hotel in the smooth surface of the parapet.

Contrasts - part 6

The next day we went sightseeing on Abu Dhabi island. I took several views of the skyscrapers on the Corniche from across the bay at the Marina. In order to convey the idea of "high", I selected a group of the highest buildings using a vertical frame and a passerby in the foreground as contrast.

Using a horizontal frame, I chose a dense group of skyscrapers to portray " solid".

One of the sights we saw was the highest flag pole in the world. This seemed to be a potential subject for "straight", "high", and "thick". Standing close to the base of the pole, I took a number of wide angle pictures looking up at the flag which emphasized its enormous size:

I also took a picture in silhouette from slightly further away which I felt presented the "straight" characteristic more.

At the Marina Mall, we went up to the cafe in the tower with fantastic views of the city. I had been looking for a high viewpoint as a way to stress the "low" character of a subject or the "small" character of a subject. Reviewing the pictures afterwards, it was difficult to decide whether a small selection or a wider view would be more effective. I chose one of the pictures including two edges of the window frame as a way give the viewer a frame of reference.

I chose another picture where the frame of reference is provided by the shadows of street lamps and a couple of figures visible on the ground.

Both pictures seem to give the feeling in the pit of the stomach of looking down from a high viewpoint. In both cases, I kept just a small element of the roof of the mall in the corners of the frame. I felt that the second image has more impact than the wider view in the other image.

In the evening, there was a little color in the sky. My intention for a picture to convey "dark" was to find a low key subject which could be photographed in low light. This could be a sunset, a persons face or a storm cloud for example. I took a photo from the end of the marina where we were staying of skyline of boat sheds and skyscrapers. I cropped out most of the light sky to allow the dark skyline to dominate the frame.

Contrasts - part 5

For the "few" characteristic, I was looking for a small number of items in a large empty space. I envisaged a wide angle shot to emphasize the empty space. I was thinking of almost deserted streets, an empty beach or a marina. Following some stormy weather, the beach was quiet. It was the tracks of footprints which seemed to epitomize the emptiness:-

I moved my vantage point from side to side to place the footprints on a left to right diagonal and a right to left diagonal. However, I preferred the vantage point in between the tracks of the footprints. Also, the sun came out to darken the shadows in the footprints so that they were more clearly defined. I thought it was necessary to include the headland and building at the far end of the beach as a point of interest where the footprints converged. There are also a couple of tiny figures on the beach in the distance.

I had thought of using plants blowing in the wind as a possible subject to show "moving" character. Just before we left there were some decorative grasses in the gardens which were being blown around backlit by the sun. I had hoped to find a vantage point with a plain background but was unsuccessful in this. The best I could find was a position where the background buildings were relatively dark. I took a sequence of photographs at different speeds. The one I preferred had some grasses reasonably sharp whereas others are blurred:-

In Abu Dhabi our friends lived in a bungalow at a marina. The area was full of boats and boat yards. On the first evening, I found that they were building a traditional wooden sailing boat in a boat yard nearby. The wooden hull was held in place by wooden props. Getting close with the lens at wide angle gave some reasonably dramatic pictures:-

The vertical frame appeared to me first and I moved from side to side so that the props were located as prominent upward diagonals in the frame. The standard photo frame appears to be taller than usual. Possibly, this is because the boats hull only just fits within the confines of the standard frame.

I was aiming for a similar effect with a horizontal frame shape. The impact of the diagonals is less dramatic, but the impact of the lines and shapes remains strong.

Just around the corner there was a small team working underneath an enormous Arab Dhow. I was looking for something "large" whose size could be gauged by some point of reference in the frame. The light clothes of the workmen against the dark underside of the boat provided such a reference:-

The boats hull is covered in scaffolding which I thought initially would detract from the subject of the picture However, I think that the complexity of this framework that conceals the boat underneath allows the viewer to puzzle over what exactly is under there and also invites the viewer to linger on the details.

Contrasts - part 4

As there is no vegetation on the mountains, there were a number of places where the rock strata are plainly visible. I thought that the strata would be a suitable subject to show "diagonal" character.

There was a spot in the bay where the diagonal strata sloped down to the water. In the morning, the sunlight fell on the surface of the rocks so that the strata was delineated by shadows. In the afternoon light, the sun was coming at an angle towards my vantage point and the sun was just catching the edges of some of the ridges in the rock. I took pictures in both conditions, but decided that the morning light created the more vibrant photograph as the rock colors were stronger:-

The diagonal strata in the rocks contrast with the smooth surface of the water. There is a road leading away from the shore at right angles to the strata. These various elements create a subdued zig-zag through the frame which I liked.

My thoughts on how to represent "thin" included looking for a subject that was laminar such as pages in book or thin slices of vegetables. Some piles of plates on a table caught my eye as a possible subject for this character or as a subject for "white":

Viewing the image on the LCD screen of the camera, the picture seemed to lack sufficient visual interest. However, on a monitor the edges of the glossy plates have reflections of the other plates which creates interesting detail that breaks up the regularity of the horizontals in the rest of the frame. I therefore decided to include this in the candidate images for this assignment.

Above the bar in one of the restaurants in the hotel, there was a wonderful stack of fruit and vegetables in a glass case. I thought that this would be a good subject for "many":

The case was high up in relatively weak lighting, but apart from a door frame there was no firm support available to rest the camera. I thought that I should include as many of the fruit squares in the original vertical format. I wanted the lens to be as high as possible to minimize the vertical perspective. The selected image above was at ISO 400 f/5.6 at a speed of 1/10th second. Surprisingly, this image is slightly sharper than one I took at 1/50th second at higher ISO.

For the "long" characteristic, I was looking for a relatively linear subject that would fill the frame with the lens at its widest setting. The rocky promontory with an archway on the headland of the bay seemed to be a potential subject:

I thought that the narrow letterbox frame with just a narrow band of sea and sky emphasized the length of the promontory out into the sea.

I originally thought that one of the subjects I could use for the "rounded" subject would be the sails of a catamaran kept on the beach. However, rough weather meant that the sails were not rigged. As an alternative, there was a pile of inflatable tires used for the lazy river at the hotel:

I moved in close using the wide angle lens and taking care to ensure that none of the surrounding foliage was included in the frame.

In the evening, I noticed a group of contractors standing on a platform supervising the movement of ballast stones some distance away. The figures were quite small in the context of the construction equipment and site and I thought this may be another potential image for "small" category. I took a few photographs with the zoom at full magnification and this is the one I preferred:

I cropped the top off the original frame as an area of light colored sea distracted attention from the three figures. The light platform on which the men are standing puts them into silhouette with a rim of light around their shoulders and helmet.

Contrasts - part 3

I thought that a palm tree trunk would be a potential subject to use for the characteristic of "rough". However, I was looking for a tree where there was a plain or smooth background so that the texture would stand out. It was only on the third day that I found a suitable palm tree in a quiet courtyard. I took a series of photographs:

- the trunk with a blank wall as background - image lacked visual interest

- the trunk where the background was largely blank wall but in one corner another building or some sky was visible - the corner added visual interest and balance

I also had pictures in sunshine with shadows on the wall in the background and without shadows on the wall.

I chose the image with shadows on the wall:-

This I felt conveyed the "rough" character of the trunk within an image that was of interest.

There was an area of white sunshades on grass by the beach. I envisaged a wide angle picture looking down on the pyramid shapes with the grass in the background. Unfortunately, I could not find any vantage point that I could use to look down on the umbrellas. As an alternative, I took a wide angle shot from normal eye level of the lines of sun beds in the morning sun:-

Compositionally, the main visual element is the converging lines of sun beds and sun shades. The sun beds seem to stretch back into infinity conveying the impression of "many" beds which is what I had hoped to achieve.

The swimming pool and water features offered potential pictures for the characteristics of "liquid", "transparent", "moving" etc. Thinking of David Hockney's paintings of figures in swimming pools and also the photograph "Man Diving" by Andre Kertesz in "The Photographers Eye", I thought I would have a go at taking a moving swimmer in a pool. I tried this first in the early evening when the pool was lit but there were no people around. I set up my camera on a table top where there was an interesting view of the pool:-

The curves of the steps contrast nicely against the straight diagonal line in the tiles on the bottom of the pool. This image may have potential to display "rounded" versus "diagonal" contrast. This was taken using ISO 640 at f/9 for 5 seconds.

The slow shutter speed rather undid my plan to take pictures of a moving swimmer. I was acting as my own model, using the self timer. However, the shutter speed was so slow that my movement in the water became no more than a streak of color. I therefore opted for a picture where I was standing still in the water:-

I quite like the picture even though it is not successful as a composition. There is too little light on the upper part of my body and I could not stand still enough during the 6 second exposure for the figure to be reasonably sharp. As a result, my figure seems more of a distraction in the foreground rather than an integral part of the image.

I tried this again in late afternoon whilst there was still daylight. The shutter speeds were higher at 1/4 to 1/6th of a second. However, the pictures did not have any visual impact. I concluded that a blurred figure in the pool was simply not an interesting subject.